John Steinbeck wrote some of the best and most famous American stories ever. Jody Tiflin is often alone and he knows little of the world. But one day he gets a pony. He learns how to love and his whole life changes....

From the top of Mount Rushmore, the heads of four U.S. presidents look down on the world below: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and Theodore Roosevelt. Who were these great men? How did they become president? And what changes did they bring to the United States of America?...

On the night of April 14, 1912, the Titanic hit an iceberg and sank. This is the full story. Why did the Titanic sink so quickly? Why did so many people die? What are the stories of all those people, young and old, rich and poor?...

Every four years the best athletes - runners, swimmers, boxers, gymnasts and more - come together to compete in the biggest sports competition in the world. In this book you can learn all about the Olympic Games and their history. Who were the greatest competitors ever and what are the stories behind their success?...

Don Quixote wants a different life, so he leaves his village with Sancho Panza. The two men want to be a knight and his squire from an earlier age. Will they find adventures? Will they be famous? Will they change the world? This is their story....

Oliver\'s mother dies when he is born and he is brought up in a workhouse. His first years are cold and lonely - and then he runs away to London. But he falls into the hands of Fagin and the terrifying Bill Sykes. They try to turn Oliver into a criminal. Will he escape to find a better life?...

More than two thousand years ago, traders brought spices and incense by camel caravan across deserts and mountains from the south of Arabia to the Mediterranean Sea. This is the story of that journey, and of the rich and beautiful cities on the way....

Winner of the 2014 ERF Language Learner Literature award, Adolescent & Adult Beginner Category. Jason looks in the mirror and sees a bruise under his eye. Why can\"t his school friends see it? Later, a ball hits him in the same eye. Now people can see the bruise - and it hurts. Jason doesn\"t understand......

New books in the Penguin Active Reading series, edited into simplified text together with exercises designed to develop language skills....

A mountain climber, high in The Andes, falls into a strange valley. In London a man is looking for a green door. A third man tries to help an unhappy ghost. Each of these exciting stories shows us two very different worlds. But which is better? And can we be happier in another world? Retold by Annette Keen....

Around the Ying Zheng, king of Qin, became the first emperor of China. He had new ideas and made new laws. He built big palaces - and a great wall. But life was difficult for his people and dangerous for the emperor. So he took an army with him into the next world....

Kim loves running – and she’s very fast. She works hard at the athletics club and wins more and more prizes. But Kim has to make a difficult choice – and she knows that it will hurt the people who love her most …...

Nelson Mandela’s life is the story of a country boy and his fight for the black people of South Africa. The extraordinary story of a great man, a freedom fighter and one of the world’s most important leaders....

Contemporary / British English One winter\'s morning in New York State, there is an accident on an icy mountain road. Thirteen-year-old Grace and her much-loved horse, Pilgrim, are very badly hurt. Grace\'s mother beleives her daughter will only recover if her horse can be saved. Can Pilgrim be nursed back to health?...

Murder of a stranger or a relative, in a quiet English town or a crowded American city. It happens everywhere for all kinds of reasons. Short stories by some of the finest modern crime writers....