The Brave Little Tailor and Other Stories by the Brothers Grimm

You can read five fairy tales in this book. The stories take us to palaces and a tall tower. They take us into the dark forest. They lead us into fairyland.

The Emperor's New Clothes and Other Stories by Hans Christian Andersen

An emperor loves clothes. A tin soldier falls in love. A duckling thinks he is ugly. An emperor gets a new toy. A soldier finds a magic tinderbox. A prince wants to marry. Read these six favourite fairy tales to find out what happens to them all.

Folk Tales from Around the World

Folk tales are old stories. They started as part of family life. No one knows who first made them up. Usually older people told them to younger people. The five stories in this book come from different parts of the world.

Giants, Dragons and Other Magical Creatures

What is a creature? Is it a person? Is it an animal? No, it's something different; something strange. In this book you will meet creatures big and small. Some of them are friendly to people. Some are not friendly at all!

Heroes and Heroines

Heroes and heroines are people who do something brave or good. They do not run away from danger. They help people. In this book, we meet two heroes and three heroines.

In the Land of the Gods

The land of the gods is a magical place. It is a place called Asgard. It is the home of the Viking gods.
Leif and Liv are two Scandinavian children. One stormy day, they meet two strange men. The men are good storytellers. They know many exciting stories about the gods.
What happens in these stories? And what will happen to Leif and Liv? Read on and find out.

Journey to the West

Meet four friends: San Zang, Monkey, Pigsy and Sandy. The four friends go on a long and difficult journey. They go to collect a special book. This special book teaches people how to be good. The book is in India. They have many exciting adventures on the way. Read on to find out about their Journey to the West.

The Lion and the Mouse and Other Stories by Aesop

The stories in this book are more than two thousand years old. Some are serious. Most are funny. All make you think.

The Little Mermaid and Other Stories by Hans Christian Andersen

There are four stories. In each story, the character has a wish. The little mermaid wants to be a real girl and marry a handsome prince. A little girl wants some food and to be warm. Eliza, a princess, wants to help her brothers who have been turned into swans by a wicked witch. A poor young prince wants to marry the emperor's daughter.
What happens to all these characters? Do you think they get their wishes? Read these favourite fairy tales by Hans Christian Andersen to find the answers.

The Monkey King

A magic stone cracks open like an egg. Monkey jumps out! In this book, you will read about Monkey's adventures.

Peter Pan

Peter Pan is an exciting adventure story, with pirates, Red Indians, and a hungry crocodile. It is also a fairy story, with magic in it. The strange boy Peter can fly. He can talk to the fairy Tinker Bell.
Do you want to know more about Peter's adventures? Read on and find out.

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

Alice is sitting by the river when suddenly a white rabbit runs past her. Then the rabbit takes a watch out of its coat pocket, and says it is late! She runs after the rabbit, and follows it into a large rabbit hole. This is how Alice's adventures in Wonderland begin.

The Golden Goose and Other Stories

Three brothers go to cut wood. The two older brothers come home with nothing, but the youngest one is given a bird with golden feathers. Two sisters, one kind, the other horrible, get water from a spring. The kind girl becomes rich. Her sister lives alone and never speaks again. Find out what happened in these and other fairy tales.

Just So Stories

At the beginning of time, the animals were quite different from the ones we see today. Can you imagine a zebra with no stripes or a leopard with no spots? The first elephant did not have a trunk to swat flies with, and the first camel did not have a hump. How did they become the animals we know today? Read these strange and amazing stories to find out.

Tales from the Arabian Nights

A cruel king marries beautiful young women, but always has their heads cut off in the morning. However, his new wife, Sheherezade, is clever. Every night, she starts to tell him a wonderful story. She tells him about a robbers' cave, full of treasure; she tells him the story of Sinbad the sailor, of a genie in a bottle, of Aladdin and his magic lamp, and many more.

The Wizard of Oz

Dorothy and her little dog, Toto, are carried by a cyclone from her aunt and uncle's house in Kansas. When they come down, they find themselves in the land of Oz. There Dorothy begins an exciting journey with her new friends. They want to go and see the wonderful Wizard of Oz in the Emerald City. Only he can give them what they want.

A Christmas Carol

A mean, lonely old man has an unpleasant surprise when he reaches the front door of his home on the night before Christmas. As he looks at the door knocker, it turns into the face of a friend who has been dead for many years! This is just the beginning of a long night in which Ebenezer Scrooge talks to his dead friend, and meets three other ghosts.

The Flying Heads and Other Strange Stories

A young man stays in a strange village for the night, and wakes to hear screams from the valley below. He looks out of the window, and sees terrible things flying through the air ... A baker wants to know what his beautiful wife does when she goes out at night. But when he stays up to watch her, he wishes he had never found out her dreadful secret ... Enjoy these strange and frightening stories from all over the world.

The Golden Touch and Other Stories

Here you will read about a king who could make gold just by touching things; a young prince who killed a monster, but lost his father; a poor young woman who got into trouble by eating half an apple; a boy who loved flying so much that he flew too close to the sun; and much more. These are stories which can teach us about life.

Gulliver's Travels — A Voyage to Lilliput

Gulliver's ship is lost in a storm, and he has to swim to save his life. After many hours, he reaches land. He lies down and falls asleep. When he wakes up, he can't get up. He is tied to the ground. His hair is tied down too, so he can't move his head. He feels something walking along his body. There, standing on his chest, is a man. He is no more than six inches tall!

The Jungle Book

Mowgli, the man cub, is raised by Mother Wolf and soon becomes her favourite. He learns about the Law of the Jungle from Baloo, the old brown bear, and Bagheera, the black panther. But Mowgli is in danger. Shere Khan, the bad-tempered old tiger, hates him and wants to kill him.

Lord Jim

Jim works as a waterclerk in the East. Everyone likes him, but he never stays long in the same job. He always leaves suddenly, and never tells anyone why he is going. He is a man with a secret. Wherever he travels, it seems he cannot hide from his secret. What is Jim's secret? What will happen to Jim? Read on and find out.

A Midsummer Night's Dream and Other Stories from Shakespeare's Plays

One midsummer night, two lovers run away to the woods where they find two other lovers - and fairies and elves! Read how Viola dresses as a man to become the servant of a prince, and then falls in love with him. You can also read the famous story of the young lovers, Romeo and Juliet, who cannot live in peace, because their families hate each other.

The Stone Junk and Other Stories

Most of the stories in this collection are about people, magic and gold. They also tell us what happens when people are too proud, too cruel, or too greedy.

Tales of King Arthur

Young Arthur needs a sword. He runs into a church and finds one stuck in a stone, so he takes it. Then he finds out that only one person in the land can take the sword from the stone, and that person is the true king of Britain. Arthur becomes King, marries a beautiful princess and receives the Round Table as a gift. The table has room for 150 good, brave knights. These tales of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table have been popular for over 700 years.

The Talking Tree and Other Stories

Two boys, walking through a forest, suddenly hear a voice coming from a tree. The Talking Tree tells them to bring it food and drink. Scared, the boys do as they are told. Then they notice some marks on the ground, close to the tree. Is the tree really magic, or is someone trying to trick them? There are plenty of surprises in this unusual collection of short stories.

Through the Looking Glass

A little girl called Alice suddenly finds herself in the dreamlike Looking-Glass world, where she seems to be a pawn in a chess game. If, as the Red Queen tells her, she can get as far as the eighth square, then she too can become a Queen.
Find out how Alice gets into this strange world, and what happens when she arrives at the eighth square.

The Canterville Ghost and Other Stories

The poor old Canterville Ghost is meant to frighten people, but the American people who live in Canterville Chase are not frightened by anything he does. Just when he doesn't know what to do, Virginia, the beautiful daughter of the family, comes to talk to him. In this and six other short stories, love and selfishness meet in different ways. The results are sometimes sad and sometimes funny, but always interesting.

Fog and Other Stories

Polly is walking through the fog. She cannot see where she is going. She believes she can hear footsteps behind her, but when she stops there is silence. Is someone following her? Perhaps it is the tall man who was watching her earlier on the train ... Then she hears a deep cough, and a strange tapping sound. Is Polly in danger? In this, and other short stories, Bill Lowe presents us with some strange mysteries, and some surprising endings.

Gulliver's Travels — Further Voyages

Gulliver is abandoned in a land of giants. His life is not always easy. Once he is mistaken for a baby monkey and a monkey tries to feed him! His next voyage is even stranger: he visits an island that floats in the sky.
Read about Gulliver's last voyages and all the amazing adventures he has.

The Hound of the Baskervilles

The great detective, Sherlock Holmes, has another case to solve. The body of Sir Charles Baskerville has been found lying in the garden of his house, on Dartmoor. There are no marks on the body, and it seems that the old man simply died of fright. Was he trying to escape from some dreadful thing — perhaps the ghostly animal called the Hound of the Baskervilles?

The Merchant of Venice and Other Stories from Shakespeare's Plays

Shylock, the moneylender, hates Antonio and wants to hurt him. He has an idea. He lends money to Antonio. If Antonio cannot pay back the money, he must give Shylock a pound of his flesh. From cold, dark Scotland to the blue sky of the Mediterranean, from the Danish court to the court of Britain long ago, these five well-known stories are filled with murder, madness and magic.

Two Boxes of Gold and Other Stories

A young man who works for a bank is taking two boxes of gold from London to Italy. On the way, everything begins to go wrong. His travelling companions seem friendly, but are they all trying to help him? Or is one of them trying to steal the gold? Read this and six other stories by Charles Dickens. Some are amusing, some strange and frightening - all are full of surprises.

King Solomon's Mines

Quatermain is returning home from a bad hunting trip, and he does not want any more adventures. But then he meets Sir Henry Curtis and Captain Good, and soon the three of them are on a dangerous journey into the heart of Africa, in search of King Solomon's Mines.

A Night Of Terror & Other Strange Tales

A man is alone on the river all through a summer night. Suddenly, his boat starts moving about in a very strange way. An Englishman, living in Corsica, keeps a dried human hand on the wall of his living room. Another man comes home from the theatre to find that all his furniture is running away ... In these and other tales of terror, people are forced to face the very worst of their fears.

The Picture of Dorian Gray

A beautiful young man called Dorian Gray has his portrait painted. He prays that as he gets older, his face will never change and instead the face in the portrait will age. His prayer is answered. As Dorian goes on to explore the pleasures of London, the face in his portrait becomes wrinkled and twisted with cruelty and lust.

Seven Stories

Clayton meets a ghost, and Fotheringay has lots of fun when he discovers that he can work miracles. There are also exciting stories in this collection about a boy who seems to have found heaven; a liquid which makes people move much faster than normal; and an apple which will give anyone who eats it endless knowledge.

Tales of Mystery and Imagination

A man lies in darkness, locked in a cell and sentenced to die. He reaches out to find ... nothing but emptiness, and the fear of what will happen to him. Another man goes to visit a childhood friend at the gloomy old House of Usher. His friend, Roderick, is very ill and slowly going mad. In these and six other classic tales, terrible things happen to people as they face their own fears and the evil deeds of others.

Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea

A strange monster has attacked several ships at sea. Professor Arronax, the famous French scientist, his servant Conseil, and Ned Land, who catches whales, join an expedition to search for the monster. What they find, however, is not a living creature at all, but an enormous submarine, the Nautilus, commanded by the mysterious Captain Nemo.

The War of the Worlds

The world has suddenly changed. The small towns and villages of southern England are lying burned and ruined. The grass on the commons, and the trees in the woods have been blackened by fire. There are no people to be seen.
This is the story of the strange and terrible things that happened to ordinary people when the Martians went to war against the Earth.

The Woman in White

Walter Hartright meets a mysterious woman dressed completely in white, who curiously knows the family he is going to work for as a drawing teacher. Walter soon discovers that the mysterious woman looks very like the woman he has fallen in love with, the beautiful Laura Fairlie. Why is the woman in white so concerned about Laura Fairlie, and why do they look so similar? Can Walter help her before it is too late?

The Diamond As Big As The Ritz & Other Stories

John Unger's friend, Percy, says his family is the richest family in the world. When John is invited to Percy's home, he discovers that his friend is telling the truth. However, he soon discovers that there is a dark side to this life of great wealth.

In other tales, a man tries to escape his past and get his daughter back, but his plans are spoiled by friends from his drinking days. A girl who teaches her cousin to be 'popular' with boys discovers that her pupil has stolen her young man, and so she takes her revenge.

Dracula

Jonathan Harker, a young solicitor, goes to see Count Dracula in his castle in Transylvania. He discovers that the Count is a vampire—a terrible Un-Dead creature who lives on human blood. And now the Count is going to London ...

Frankenstein

On the way to the North Pole, Robert Walton meets Victor Frankenstein, a scientist who seems exhausted and near death. 'Let me tell you my tale,' says Frankenstein.
There follows the extraordinary story of how Frankenstein discovered how to make a giant man from parts of dead bodies. However, the man turned against him, and became a monster ...

The Stalled Ox and Other Stories

What would you do if a large ox got into your garden? A lady who dies and comes back as an animal; a man whose holiday is disturbed by witches; another man who finds a werewolf in his woods ... These are all part of Saki's strange and hilarious stories, set against the background of British upper-class life.