Adult Readers: Stage 4

Black Beauty by John Escott When Black Beauty is trained to carry a rider on his back, or to pull a carriage behind him, he finds it hard at first. But he is lucky--his first home is a good one, where his owners are kind people, who would never be cruel to a horse. But in the nineteenth century many people were cruel to their horses, whippng them and beating them, and using them like machines until they dropped dead. Black Beauty soon finds this out, and as he describes his life, he has many terrible stories to tell.

Gulliver's Travels by Jennifer Bassett The narrator represents himself as a reliable reporter of the fantastic adventures he has just experienced. But how far can we rely on a narrator who has been impersonated by someone else? The work purports to be a travel book, and describes the shipwrecked Gulliver's encounters with the inhabitants of four extraordinary places: Lilliput, Brobdingnag, Laputa, and the country of the Houyhnhnms. An extraordinarily skillful blend of fantasy and realism makes Gulliver's Travels by turns hilarious, frightening, and profound. Swift's alter ego plays tricks on us, and our gullibility uncovers one of the world's most disturbing satires of the human condition.

Hound of the Baskervilles by Patrick Nobes Dartmoor. A wild, wet place in the south-west of England. A place where it is easy to get lost, and to fall into the soft green earth which can pull the strongest man down to his death. A man is running for his life. Behind him comes an enormous dog--a dog from his worst dreams, a dog from hell. Between him and a terrible death stands only one person--the greatest detective of all time, Sherlock Holmes.

Little Women by John Escott When Christmas come for the March girls, there is no money for expensive presents, and they give away their Christmas breakfast to a poor family. But there are no happier girls in America than Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy. They miss their father, of course, who is away at the Civil War, but they try hard to be good so that he will be proud of his 'little women' when he comes home.

Silas Marner by Jennifer Bassett In a hole under the floorboards Silas Marner the linen-weaver keeps his gold. Every day he works hard at his weaving, and every night he takes the gold out and holds the bright coins lovingly, feeling them and counting them again and again. The villagers are afraid of him, and he has no family, no friends. Only the gold is his friend, his delight, his reason for living. But what if a thief should com in the night and take his gold away?

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Rosemary Border You are walking through the streets of London. It is getting dark, and you want to get home quickly. You enter a narrow sidestreet. Everything is quiet, but as you pass the door of a large, windowless building, you hear a key turning in the lock. A man comes out and looks at you. You have never seen him before, but you realize immediately that he hates you. You are shocked to discover, also, that you hate him.

A Tale of Two Cities by Ralph Mowat "The Marquis lay there, like stone, with a knife pushed into his heart. On his chest lay a piece of paper, with the words: Drive him fast to the grave. This is from JACQUES." The French Revolution brings terror and death to many people. But even in these troubled times people can still love and be kind. They can be generous and true-hearted and brave.

The Thirty-Nine Steps by John Buchan "I turned on the light, but there was nobody there. Then I saw something in the corner that made my blood turn col. Scudder was lying on his back. There was a long knife through his heart, pinning him to the floor."