Norman Wymer Book order (chronological)

Penguin Readers is a series of simplified novels, film novelizations and original titles that introduce students at all levels to the pleasures of reading in English. Originally designed for teaching English as a foreign language, the series' combination of high interest level and low reading age makes it suitable for both English-speaking teenagers with limited reading skills and students of English as a second language. Many titles in the series also provide access to the pre-20th century literature strands of the National Curriculum English Orders.

Abridged for children

In nineteenth-century England, two sisters are drawn into unhappy romances despite the cool judgment of one and the emotional intensity of the other.

[Longman Structural Readers Stage 3] David Copperfield's happy life suddenly changes when his mother marries again. Her new husband, Mr Murdstone, does not like David at all. He is cruel to him and then sends him away to school. Here David makes friends, but he is unhappy. When David is ten, his mother dies and Mr Murdstone sends him to work in London. David hates his job so he decides to run away to his father's aunt. He starts his journey with no money for the coach or for food. But his life of adventure, love and friendship has begun.

This dark psychological fantasy is more than a moral tale. It is also a product of its time, drawing on contemporary theories of class, evolution and criminality and the secret lives behind Victorian propriety, to create a unique form of urban Gothic.

The Stars Look Down was A.J. Cronin's fourth novel, published in 1935, and this tale of a North country mining family was a great favourite with his readers. Robert Fenwick is a miner, and so are his three sons. His wife is proud that all her four men go down the mines. But David, the youngest, is determined that somehow he will educate himself and work to ameliorate the lives of his comrades who ruin their health to dig the nation's coal. It is, perhaps, a typical tale of the era in which it was written --there were many novels about coal mining, But Cronin, a doctor turned author, had a gift for storytelling, and in his time wrote several very popular and successful novels.

Longman Structural Readers - Stage 6 Contents:1. James Bond in the Forest2. For Your Eyes Only3. The Air Hostess4. A Risky Business5. The Rare FishFirst published in this edition 1973New impression 1974