Reading

Young Mico is a slave in a big house in Pompeii. His only friend is the house dog, Fortunatus. One quiet summer day, Fortunatus suddenly runs away. He takes Mico with him. What does the dog know? What is he afraid of? Is it, perhaps, the mountain behind the town?

Count Dracula is a vampire. He drinks people's blood. He lives in a lonely castle in the mountains of Transylvania. But then he comes to England and strange things start happening. People change. People become ill. Professor Van Helsing knows about vampires, but can he stop Count Dracula?

Huck and Jim travel down the Mississippi from St. Petersburg to Cairo. Jim is a runaway slave so they have to be careful. They have a lot of adventures on the river. They even meet a king! But is he real? Huck soon finds out the truth.

A man is killed in Richard Hannay's home. Before his death he tells Hannay a dangerous secret. Now Hannay's life is in danger. Who are his enemies and what are they trying to do? And how will he solve the mystery of ‘the thirty-nine steps'?

These are the stories of some of Shakespeare's most famous plays. We travel to Venice, Greece, Denmark and Rome, and meet many different people. There is a greedy money-lender, a fairy king and queen, some Roman politicians and a young prince who meets the ghost of his murdered father.

‘Sons of Scotland! You have come here to fight as free men. If you fight, perhaps you'll die. If you run, you may live for a time. But at what cost?' Braveheart is the story of William Wallace, who gave hope to Scottish people in their fight to be free.

Can Phileas Fogg go round the world in eighty days? He doesn't know that somebody wants to stop him. Then Fogg will lose his bet – twenty thousand pounds!

A famous painting is going to the Grierson Gallery in LA and they want a top man to come to the United States. He can talk about the artist. The National Gallery in London send Mr Bean. But something is very wrong with Mr Bean! He's very, very strange. And dangerous! After he arrives, accidents start to happen.

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.

Othello is a popular soldier who is in love with his beautiful new wife. He also has good friends – like Iago, another soldier. So when Iago tells him terrible stories about his wife, Desdemona, who should Othello believe? Will jealousy destroy all their lives? This is one of William Shakespeare's greatest plays.

Will Freeman wants an easy life with no responsibilities. But then he meets Marcus – an unusual twelve year old boy with serious problems. About a Boy is a modern classic – a very funny story about a very serious subject: love. It's also a popular movie starring Hugh Grant.

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?

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?

Frankenstein is probably the most famous horror story in the world. Victor Frankenstein is a young scientist who creates a monster from parts of dead bodies. At first the monster looks for love and wants to be kind. But soon, he learns to hate people and becomes evil. Frankenstein has learnt how to create life. But will this life destroy him?