Intermediate

On a stormy winter night, a stranger knocks at the door of a shepherd's cottage. He is cold and hungry, and wants to get out of the rain. He is welcomed inside, but he does not give his name or his business. Who is he, and where has he come from? And he is only the first visitor to call at the cottage that night ...In these three short stories, Thomas Hardy gives us pictures of the lives of shepherds and hangmen, dukes and teachers. But rich or poor, young or old, they all have the same feelings of fear, hope, love, jealousy ... Classics

In our world today a hummingbird is a small, brilliantly coloured bird that lives in the tall trees of tropical forests. In the far distant future, Hummingbird (Hummy for short) is a girl of sixteen who lives somewhere in the Galaxy, on a planet called Just Like Home. She has the name 'Hummingbird' in big letters on all her clothes, but she has never seen a real hummingbird. She has never seen any living animal or bird at all. The Book of Remembering says that there were once many animals on a planet called Earth, but that was before the Burning, a long, long time ago ... Fantasy Horror

What will we do when there is nowhere to put our rubbish? Every day, all over the world, people drop cans, boxes, paper, and bottles into bins and never think about them again. And the rubbish mountains get bigger and bigger. But there is another way - a way that makes old paper into houses, broken bottles into jewellery, and old cans into bridges. Anyone can recycle - it's easy, it saves money, and it's a way to say, 'I care about the Earth.' Saving the world starts with you - here - now.

Factfiles

What will we do when there is nowhere to put our rubbish? Every day, all over the world, people drop cans, boxes, paper, and bottles into bins and never think about them again. And the rubbish mountains get bigger and bigger. But there is another way - a way that makes old paper into houses, broken bottles into jewellery, and old cans into bridges. Anyone can recycle - it's easy, it saves money, and it's a way to say, 'I care about the Earth.' Saving the world starts with you - here - now. Factfiles

'We have to leave our house in London,' Mother said to the children. 'We're going to live in the country, in a little house near a railway line.' And so begins a new life for Roberta, Peter, and Phyllis. They become the railway children - they know all the trains, Perks the station porter is their best friend, and they have many adventures on the railway line. But why has their father had to go away? Where is he, and will he ever come back? Human Interest

Nani Tama looked at each of us - Dad, Auntie Hiraina, my cousin Timi, and myself. His eyes were angry. 'You fullas want me to die here in this room? Looking at these four walls? When the whakapapa is not yet finished?' But Nani Tama gets his own way, and his grandson drives him through the night, to find the missing pieces from the family history. The stories in this volume of World Stories are by New Zealand writers James Courage, Witi Ihimaera, Philip Mincher , and Joy Cowley. World Stories