'I often walked along the shore,and one day I saw something in thesand.I went over to look at it morecarefully…It was a footprint-thefootprint of a man!' In 1659 Robinson Crusoe was shipwrecked on a smallisland off the coast of South America.After fifteen yearsalone,he suddenly learns that there is another person onthe island.But will this man be a friend-or an enemy?

What's in a name？ Does it really matterif you are called Montague or Capulet？ When Romeo, son of Lord and Lady Montague, falls in love with the mostbeautiful girl he's ever seen, he finds out that it does matter. It makes all the difference in theworld, because both families hate each other bitterly. For a time, Romeo and Juliet manage to keep their lovesecret. But when Romeo is sent away from Verona, andarrangements are made for Juliet to marry Paris, a friendof her father's, hope begins to die. Can any of their friendshelp the young lovers to be together for ever？

Six women are dead because of the Whitechapel Killer.Now another womanlies in a London street and there is bloodeverywhere.She is very ill. You are the famous detective Mycroft Pound;can you catch the killer before he escapes?

There are broken hearts and kisses and then weddings, so this is a story about love. There are actors who are funny becausethey cannot act, so it is also a story thatmakes people laugh. And there are fairies, spirits of the night, so it is a story about mischief and magictoo. What happens when love and laughter come togetherwith magic in an Athenian forest? A Midsummer Night's Dream was written in about 1596 and is one of Shakespeare's most popular plays. It hasbeen retold for Bookworms, not as a play, but as a story.

'I'm not a thief.I'm an innocent man',shouts Brown.He is angry because he is inprison and the prison guards hate him. Then one day Brown has an idea.It isdangerous-very dangerous.

When Christmas comes for the four March girls, there is no money forexpensive 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, ofcourse, who is away at the Civil War, but they try hard tobe good so that he will be proud of his ‘little women’whenhe comes home. This heart-warming story of family life has been popularfor more than a hundred years.

'You're a brave man,but I am afraid for you,'says Lady Marian to Robin of Locksley.She is afraid because Robin does not like Prince John's new taxes and wants to do something for the poor people of Nottingham.When Prince John hears this,Robin is suddenly in great danger.

When Black Beauty is trained to carry arider on his back,or to pull a carriagebehind him,he finds it hard at first.Buthe 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,whipping 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. [Word count 15,400]

It is 1880,in the Opera House in Paris. Everybody is talking about the Phantom ofthe Opera,the ghost that lives somewhereunder the Opera House.The Phantom is aman in black clothes.He is a body without a head,he is a head without a body.He has a yellow face,hehas no nose,he has black holes for eyes.Everybody is afraidof the Phantom-the singers,the dancers,the directors,thestage workers… But who has actually seen him?

Victor Frankenstein thinks he has foundthe secret of life.He takes parts fromdead people and builds a new 'man'.Butthis monster is so big and frighteningthat everyone runs away from him-even Frankenstein himself! The monster is like an enormous baby who needs love. But nobody gives him love,and soon he learns to hate. And,because he is so strong,the next thing he learnsis how to kill...[Word count 9,685]

Sherlock Holmes is famous around theworld.When the police cannot solve acrime,they turn to Holmes.He nevermisses a clue,and when he lookscarefully at a person,he can understand everything about them. These are two of the best Sherlock Holmes stories.In 'The Dead Coachman',Holmes investigates a burglary and a murder while he is staying in the countryside with his friend Doctor Watson.In 'The Last Mystery',Holmes is in danger from the evil Professor Moriarty,who is as clever as the detective himself.They are both ready to fight to the death.But who will win?[Word count 8,351]

Christmas is humbug,Scrooge says-just a time when you find yourself a yearolder and not a penny richer.The onlything that matters to Scrooge is business,and making money. But on Christmas Eve three spirits come to visit him.They take him travelling on the wings of the night to seethe shadows of Christmas past,present,and future-and Scrooge learns a lesson that he will never forget.

'I turned on the light,but there was nobodythere.Then I saw something in the cornerthat made my blood turn cold.Scudder waslying on his back.There was a long knifethrough his heart,pinning him to the floor.' Soon Richard Hannay is running for his life across the hills of Scotland.The police are chasing him for a murder he did notdo,and another,more dangerous enemy is chasing him aswell-the mysterious 'Black Stone'.Who are these people? And why do they want Hannay dead?

In a gloomy,neglected house Miss Havisham sits,as she has sat year afteryear,in a wedding dress and veil that wereonce white,and are now faded and yellowwith age.Her face is like a death's head; her dark eyes burn with bitterness and hate.By her side sitsa proud and beautiful girl,and in front of her,trembling withfear in his thick country boots,stands young Pip. Miss Havisham stares at Pip coldly,and murmurs to the girlat her side:'Break his heart,Estella.Break his heart!'(Word count 24,045)

Sometimes the Dashwood girls do notseem like sisters.Elinor is all calmnessand reason,and can be relied upon forpractical,common sense opinions.Marianne,on the other hand,is allsensibility,full of passionate and romantic feeling.Shehas no time for dull common sense-or for middle-agedmen of thirty-five,long past the age of marriage. True love can only be felt by the young,of course.And ifyour heart is broken at the age of seventeen,how can youever expect to recover from the passionate misery that fillsyour life,waking and sleeping?

When men find gold in the frozennorth of Canada,they need dogsbig,strong dogs to pull the sledges onthe long journeys to and from the gold mines. Buck is stolen from his home in the south and sold asa sledge-dog.He has to learn a new way of life -howto work in harness,how to stay alive in the ice and thesnow...and how to fight.Because when a dog fallsdown in a fight,he never gets up again.[Word count 10,965]

Dorothy lives in Kansas, USA, but oneday a cyclone blows her and her house toa strange country called Oz. There, Dorothymakes friends with the Scarecrow, the Tin Man, and the Cowardly Lion. But she wants to go home to Kansas. Only one person canhelp her, and that is the country's famous Wizard. So Dorothyand her friends take the yellow brick road to the Emerald City, to find the Wizard of Oz…

'Soon I felt something alive moving along my leg and up my body to my face,and when I looked down,I saw a very small human being,only fifteen centimetres tall...I was so surprised that I gave a great shout.' But that is only the first of many surprises which Gulliver has on his travels.He visits a land of giants and a flying island, meets ghosts from the past and horses which talk...