Penguin Readers

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penguin readers

Teaching resource books
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Penguin Readers introduce students at all levels to reading in English. They are graded at seven levels, from "Easystarts" with a 200-word vocabulary, to Level 6 (Advanced) with a 3000-word vocabulary.

At the end of each book there is a section of exercises focusing on vocabulary building, comprehension, discussion and writing. Some titles have free accompanying "Penguin Readers Factsheets" providing stimulating exercise material for students, as well as suggestions for teachers on how to exploit the Readers in class.

Saving Private Ryan (level 6 - advanced)
Following the Normandy landings, a small company of American soldiers is sent deeper into France to find Private James Ryan, the only surviving brother out of four, and return him home to his mother in America.
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Schindler's List (level 6 - advanced)
Of all the books written on the subject of the Holocaust, there can be little doubt that Thomas Kenealy's remarkable story will be one of the most enduring. Beautifully written and extremely well researched, this book is utterly compelling from page one.
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The Horse Whisperer (level 3 - intermediate)
The Horse Whisperer is a story of tragedy, soul-searching and unabashed romance. When 13-year-old daughter Grace, high-powered, highly charged Annie, and her lawyer husband Robert are struck by tragedy, each searches for their own way to come to terms with it. Annie thinks if she can fix Grace's physically and spiritually battered horse, she'll mend her daughter's maimed soul. And so the search for the mythical horse whisperer begins.
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Web (level 3 - intermediate)
The island of Tanakuatua seems like heaven to the 40 people who go there in order to create a utopian society, but soon they start to die in a horrible way and it seems that something strange and deadly is out there in the jungle.
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Walkabout (level 2 - pre intermediate)
"The plot in itself is quite simple, two white children, a boy and a girl are lost in the Australian outback after a plane crash which kills the crew; neither child has any experience in the art of surviving in a hostile environment and it is only by luck they are found by a young Aborigine boy who is on Walkabout, a trek he must make alone before he can be called a man."
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How the Grinch Stole Christmas (level 4 - intermediate)
"This is one of my favorite Christmas books of all time. It is lovely, it's sweet, easy-reading (as the the rhyming Dr. Suess always does) and it's a little bit like 'Charles Dicken's A Christmas Carol'. The Grinch loathes Christmas, and he always wants to ruin it and until he plots to STEAL Christmas! Will his sinister plot work?"
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The Borrowers (level 2 - pre intermediate)
The Borrowers are tiny people who live under the floor of the Lender family's house. A nasty lawyer, Ocious P. Potter, wants to pull down the Lender's home, but young Peter Lender meets Arrietty Clock, a Borrower, and they join forces to try and stop him.
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Matilda (level 3 - intermediate)
Matilda is a very clever, very special little girl with stupid, awful parents who don't appreciate that their daughter is a genius. One day Miss Trunchbull, the horrible headmistress, attacks her and Matilda finds out that she has extraordinary powers to protect herself.
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Little Women (level 1 - elementary)
This is the classic story of the four March sisters - Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy. Their story of their loves, problems and adventures is sometimes sad, often funny, but always charming.
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Seven (level 4 - intermediate)
Detective Somerset has only seven more days before he retires to a new, peaceful life on the countryside, but before he can leave he and his partner Mills have to find a murderer who is killing people in the most horrible ways.
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L.A. Confidential (level 3 - intermediate)
Christmas 1951, Los Angeles, a city where the police are as corrupt as the criminals. Six prisoners are badly beaten in their cells by drunken officers and for three of the LAPD involved, it is time to face the guilty secrets of their violent pasts.
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Martin Luther King (level 3 - intermediate)
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