Penguin Readers & Pearson English Readers (1200 headwords)

Anna Scott is an American film star. She is rich, beautiful and very famous. William Thacker is a shy man who has a small, unsuccessful bookshop in London. Their lives are different in every way, but they are both looking for someone special. Can a future together be more than a dream? Notting Hill is a wonderful – and very funny – love story.

Sir Robert Chiltern is a successful politician and an honest man. He is an ideal husband for the beautiful and serious Lady Chiltern. But somebody knows a dangerous secret about Sir Robert. Can Sir Robert’s charming Society friends save his job and his marriage? This Penguin Reader play is written for acting – making English come alive.

This is the funniest book that you will read about English people! Why are the English different from Europeans? George Mikes’ book describes the strange things the English do and say. And the English don’t get angry when they read the book. They love it! You will too!

Elinor and Marianne Dashwood are two very different sisters. Marianne loves excitement and always shows her feelings; Elinor is quiet and has more good sense. They both fall in love and both suffer broken hearts. Will they ever find the right man to love and marry?

Precious Ramotswe is the only female private detective in Botswana. Her agency – the No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency – is the best in the country. She solves a number of difficult - and sometimes dangerous - problems. A missing husband, a missing finger and a missing child – she will solve these mysteries in her own special way.

Katrina Kirby is a detective. People call her ‘K’. There has been a murder in a big country house. ‘K’ knows that one of five people murdered Sir Michael Gray. Who did it? How? Why? This is a detective story with a difference: ‘K’ needs your help with her case.

For a number of years, William plays a game with a ghost before he goes to sleep. The ghost is a poltergeist that William calls ‘Poldy’. At the beginning William and Poldy play a friendly game every night, but then the game begins to change. It becomes a dangerous game. Who will win?

Has Mrs Brown killed Granny on the beach? Why does Mrs Hill want to leave her husband? Who wants to steal the Professor’s invention? And what is little Johnny trying to say? Discover the answers when you read the plays in this book. They are plays about ordinary people and the unusual, often funny, things that happen to them.

Mark Twain is one of America’s most famous and best-loved writers. He wrote about every important subject of his time. Twain’s stories are usually amusing but with a serious message too. You will read about people’s hopes and fears, happiness and terrible sadness—and wonderful practical jokes!

Miranda Hilliard does not live with her husband, Daniel. He wants to see the children more often, but they live with Miranda. One day Madame Doubtfire comes to work for Miranda and help with the children. But Madame Doubtfire seems strange, more like a man than a woman ...

It is 1839. The slave ship, Amistad, is carrying African slaves to America. There is a bloody fight on the ship, and the Africans are free. But soon they are in prison in the US. Must they return to their ‘owners’, or are they free people?

A young woman comes to a big house to teach two young children. It’s her first job and she wants to do it well. But she begins to see strange things – the ghosts of dead people. Do the ghosts want the children?