Penguin Readers (Simplified-text)

Kay and Jay are Men in Black. They have an important job – they watch all the aliens in the world. ‘There are usually fifteen hundred aliens on Earth at any one time.’ Things are usually quiet. But then a new alien arrives and this one wants to fight.

Contemporary / American English This is the second exciting Mummy movie. Ten years after their last battle with Imhotep, Evelyn and Rick O'Connell are back in Egypt. It is the Year of the Scorpion and people in Egypt are afraid. Somebody has to kill the Scorpion King,...

George and Lennie are friends and they have plans for the future. But Lennie is not very smart and he sometimes makes trouble. George wants to help him but that is not always easy. Then one night, when Lennie is alone, something happens. What can George do now? Can he...

In Egypt Imhotep, High Priest of the Dead, stays in the ground for 3215 years. Then he wakes up from his half-life and he starts to kill. Evelyn works in a museum. Rick is a soldier. Can these very different people send Imhotep back to the dead — and also...

This is the second exciting Mummy movie. Ten years after their last battle with Imhotep, Evelyn and Rick O’Connell are back in Egypt. It is the Year of the Scorpion and people in Egypt are afraid. Somebody has to kill the Scorpion King, or the world will end.

Classic / British English D'Artagnan wants to be a musketeer. He wants to fight for his king and his country. But the Queen has a problem with the Cardinal, so d'Artagnan and his new friends have to help her. The Cardinal is a very dangerous man. Who...

Britain is a small country but it has a long history. Two thousand years ago it was part of the Roman Empire. In the 1930s the British Empire was the biggest empire in world history. In the past, kings and queens fought to rule Britain. Discover how wars, revolutions and...

It is 1839. The slave ship, Amistad, is carrying African slaves to America. There is a bloody fight on the ship, and the Africans are free. But soon they are in prison in the US. Must they return to their ‘owners’, or are they free people?

Contemporary / British English (Available February 2008) Jane, a 20-year-old writer falls in love with Tom Lefroy who studies law. Jane's romance inspired her to write Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility. Read the story of Jane Austen and how she became one of the...

Contemporary / British English Eleven-year old Billy Elliot is different from other boys. He is not very clever or good at sport. Then, one day, he discovers ballet dancing. Finally he has found something that he can do well. But everybody knows that ballet is for girls,...

Original / British English Who are the British? This book will tell you about their lives, TV programmes, business, family, life, pets and the food. This is a book about real people and real life in Britain today.

David Copperfield’s happy life suddenly changes when his mother marries again. Her new husband is cruel to him and sends him away to school. When David’s mother dies, he is sent to work in London. He hates his job so he runs away. He has no money for food or...

Matilda is a clever and unusual little girl. But her parents aren’t interested in her, and the terrible head teacher at her school hates clever children. But Matilda finds a way to be strong, and the results are very funny.

My Fair Lady is the story of a poor young flower-seller and a professor who doesn’t like women. The professor decides to teach the flower-seller to speak better English. He wants to change her from street-girl to lady. But what will he learn from her?

Contemporary / British English Anna Scott is an American film star. She is rich, beautiful and very famous. William Thacker is a shy man who has a small, unsuccessful bookshop in London. Their lives are different in every way, but they are both looking for someone special....

Contemporary / American English Jack Sparrow, captain of the Black Pearl, is back in a new adventure. This time he, Will Turner, Elizabeth Swann, and Commodore Norrington are all looking for a chest that belongs to the terrible Captain Davy Jones. But Davy Jones has other plans...

Princess Diana, one of the most famous and popular women in the world – the People’s Princess. Read here about Diana’s short life, her marriage to Prince Charles, her ‘war’ with the Royal Family and her love and hard work for sick and poor people all over the world.

Charlie Babbit needs money. But when his rich father dies, Charlie gets two surprises. One: he has a brother, Raymond, who lives in a special hospital. Two: all their father’s money goes to Raymond. Charlie is angry, but the journey across America with Raymond changes his life.

Ugly and unwanted by the outside world, Quasimodo the hunchback lives under the protection of the priest in the Cathedral of Notre-Dame. Then his quiet life is destroyed by the priest’s evil plans for a beautiful gypsy girl. The priest needs Quasimodo’s help. But the hunchback has other ideas.

Silvia Broome is an interpreter at the United Nations. One night she hears a plan to kill the President of the African state of Matobo. Agent Tobin Keller of the US Secret Service must stop the killers. But is Silvia telling the truth? Is she hiding something from him? Is...

In Egypt, the Pharaoh’s soldiers are ordered to kill every Hebrew baby boy. But one baby escapes. He grows up in a palace and has a very comfortable life. But one day Moses learns the secret of his past, and his life changes forever.

Bill Gates, the richest man in the world, started Microsoft in 1975 with a friend when he was only nineteen years old. Twenty years later he wrote this book about the future of computers and the Internet. Read the ideas and dreams of a man who has changed the world.

Contemporary / American English Jim Braddock is a successful boxer in New York. But in October 1929 the American economy fails, and at the same time Jim starts to lose in the boxing ring. Does the true story of Jim Braddock - the Cinderella Man...

A secret organisation plans to assassinate the French President, General de Gaulle. Their leader, Colonel Marc Rodin, decides to hire a professional, someone unknown to French police. He and his men choose the Jackal. Can police detective Claude Lebel stop the killing and save the President’s life?

Thirty people join an Italian evening class. All have their own reasons. Connie needs to escape from an unhappy home life; Lou has criminal intentions. Aidan and Signora have organised the classes. All their lives are changed forever.

Classic / British English Gabriel Oak is an honest, hard-working young farmer, who falls in love with the beautiful and independent Bathsheba Everdene. After a tragic accident, Gabriel loses his farm. Bathsheba, on the other hand, becomes rich. Is there any hope for Gabriel?

Classic / British English Gabriel Oak is an honest, hard-working young farmer, who falls in love with the beautiful and independent Bathsheba Everdene. After a tragic accident, Gabriel loses his farm. Bathsheba, on the other hand, becomes rich. Is there any hope for Gabriel?

Don Vito Corleone is the ‘Godfather’ of New York’s richest Mafia family. His business is built on fear and murder. Vito’s son Michael wants a quiet life away from the family business. But that’s not easy, and slowly Michael becomes the most dangerous gangster of them all…

Contemporary / British English Twenty years ago a group of people lived in a house in London. One of them was murdered, but who was it? We slowly find out the truth, as the past, the present and the future join together in a frightening story.