LEAP 3 Reading Guide

A young man comes to stay with two women who live together on a farm. This story tells how he loves one of the women, and how he gets her.

The classic story of orphaned Mary who has been sent to stay at her uncle's manor house in Yorkshire, following the death of her parents from cholera. Mary is spoilt and sickly, but her life changes for the better when she discovers the secret walled garden in the grounds of the house.

Catherine Sloper lives quietly with her father and aunt in New York. When her father dies she will be a rich woman, so when she meets the handsome Morris Townsend, who says he wants to marry her, she needs to find out if he loves her or her money.

This is the story of an Aboriginal boy and two American children in the Australian desert. When they meet the boy, Mary and Peter learn about the desert. They follow him to food and water. But they are lost. Can they finish their journey and find their way home?

Sherlock Holmes has another case to solve. The body of Sir Charles Baskerville has been found lying in the garden of his house. There are no marks on his body, and it seems that the old man simply died of fright. Sir Charles' s friend Dr. Mortimer, doesn't not know what to think. He has seen the footprints of a very large dog quite closer to Sir Charles's body, and he has heard that people on Dartmoor speaking of a strange animal that runs on the moor. But he does not believe in ghosts and neither does Sherlock Holmes. Sherlock and his assistant, Dr. Watson, have many adventures before they can uncover the truth behind Sir Charles's death.

Mr Pickwick sets out on a scientific journey around England with three friends - but their travels soon turn into a series of romantic and amusing adventures.

Lucie thinks that her father is dead. One day a stranger tells her that he is alive. He has been in prison and just been released. In Paris Lucie reunites with her father and goes to England with him. A few years later father and daughter return to Paris. The French Revolution has begun. Lucies's husband is heir to a cruel nobleman and the servants are now plotting to destroy him. Only love and great courage can save him...

Young David Copperfield's life starts to go wrong when his mother marries the cruel Mr. Murdstone. David is sent to school, where the headmaster, Mr. Creakle, hits him whenever he can. But when he runs away from school to find his Aunt Betsy Trotwood, things begin to get better.

Pip is an orphan whose life is changed by two strange meetings. As a child, he meets an escaped prisoner, a frightening man who makes Pip bring him food and a tool to cut his chains. A few years later, the strange Miss Havisham introduces Pip to a beautiful but cruel girl named Estella. Years later, it seems that Pip's dreams have come true. An unknown person is going to give him a fortune, so that he can be a gentleman. But who is this mysterious person?

The sole survivor of a shipwreck, Robinson Crusoe is washed up on a desert island. In his journal he chronicles his daily battle to stay alive, as he conquers isolation, fashions shelter and clothes, first encounters another human being and fights off cannibals and mutineers.

The people of Raveloe are very curious when a lonely weaver, Silas Marner, comes to live in their village. He works hard to earn gold, but this seems to be all he cares about. Then, one winter, everything changes. Silas's gold is stolen, and Squire Cass's younger son disappears. Then a stranger dies in the snow and a golden-haired girl appears in Silas's cottage. Silas adopts the baby girl, and his life is changed forever. But what will happen when, years later, Godfrey Cass comes to tell Silas a dark secret from the past?

Poor Passepartout! He agrees to work as the servant of Phileas Fogg because he wants a peaceful life. Mr. Fogg is a gentleman who always does exactly the same thing every day. However, that very evening, his master returns from his club and tells him that they must leave for France. They are going to make the tour of the world. Mr. Fogg had bet twenty thousand pounds that they can do it in eighty days!

The story finds Alice six months after her fall down the rabbit hole. This time, the portal to another world takes the form of a large mirror. Curious as to what lies on the other side of the mirror's reflection, Alice leans into the glass surface and once again tumbles into an unknown land. It is here that she first reads the perplexing poem “Jabberwocky,” meets Tweedledee and Tweedledum, and journeys through forests and across streams, encountering many odd characters along the way, to reach the castle where she will be named queen.

Huck is only fourteen when he escapes from his father. Soon he reaches Jackson's Island and find himself sharing the island with Jin, a runaway slave. Together they put all their things on a raft and set off on what becomes a great adventure down the Mississippi River. Will Huck be caught by his father? Will Jim ever be a slave again?

This popular series of readers has now been completely revised and updated, using a new syllabus and new word structure lists. Readability has been ensured by means of specially designed computer software. Words that are above level but essential to the story are explained within the text,illustrated, and then reused for maximum reinforcement.

The text of this classic has here been simplified, vocabulary controlled and sentence structures chosen according to the level of the reader. The introduction provides information on the author and story, and there are exercises of comprehension and questions for discussion.

Why is the frightening Mr. Hyde a friend of the nice Dr. Jekyll? Who is the evil little man? And why does he seem to have power over the doctor? After a terrible murder, everyone is looking for Mr. Hyde. But he has disappeared. Or has he?

The saga of David Balfour, a young heir whose greedy uncle connives to do him out of his inherited fortune and plots to have him seized and sold into slavery. But honor, loyalty, and courage are rewarded; the orphan and castaway survives kidnapping and shipwreck, is rescued by a daredevil of a rogue, and makes a thrilling escape to freedom across the wild highlands of Scotland.

Professor Nichols , atomic scientist, has just been kidnapped. Detective Superintendent Roberts is called out the lead the search. His careful methods are often successful. With atomic secrets, a collection of valuable diamonds and a man's life at stake the pressure is on for Roberts to find the missing scientist - but will he succeed.

When Henry Fleming heard there was a war, he did not really believe it. He did not think there could be a war in his own country. However, he wanted to be part of it. The war was the American Civil War, and although the battles would be different to those fought in the past, Henry soon found they were as full of horror and death as any he had ever read about. But Henry's biggest battle was with himself. Would he run away, when the fighting got too fierce? Or would he stand up bravely and lead his companions in acts of great heroism?

"Some time after my wife died, I realized that my bedroom was haunted..." So writes William Harris at the beginning of his mysterious manuscript. Only his friend, Louis, learns the secret of the haunted room. He finds the manuscript and re-tells the story here, for you...

The Merchant of Venice -- Macbeth -- The Tempest -- Hamlet -- King Lear.

Sherlock Holmes is a great detective. There are few cases that he cannot solve. In these three stories we meet a young woman who is terrified of a mysterious 'speckled band', a family who think that five orange pips are a sign of death, and a banker who believes that his son is a thief. But are things really as they seem to be?

Count Dracula is a vampire. He drinks people's blood. He lives in a lonely castle in the mountains of a distant country. But then he comes to England. Professor Van Helsing knows about vampires, but can he stop Count Dracula?

During the French Revolution a young Englishman gives up his life to save the husband of the woman he loves.

On Long Island, New York, the rich and mysterious Jay Gatsby has built a grand mansion. All summer, he gives wonderful parties there. However, Gatsby's only hope is that one evening the love of his life, Daisy Buchanan, will wander into one of his parties. When he finds out that his new neighbour, Nick Carraway, is Daisy's cousin, Gatsby requests a meeting with his former love.

A desperate young man plans the perfect crime--the murder of a despicable pawnbroker, an old women no one loves and no one will mourn. Is it not just, he reasons, for a man of genius to commit such a crime, to transgress moral law--if it will ultimately benefit humanity? So begins one of the greatest novels ever written: a powerful psychological study, a terrifying murder mystery, a fascinating detective thriller infused with philosophical, religious and social commentary. Raskolnikov, an impoverished student living in a garret in the gloomy slums of St. Petersburg, carries out his grotesque scheme and plunges into a hell of persecution, madness and terror. Crime and Punishment takes the reader on a journey into the darkest recesses of the criminal and depraved mind, and exposes the soul of a man possessed by both good and evil . . . a man who cannot escape his own conscience.

Quartermain is returning home from a bad hunting trip, and he does not want any more adventures. But then he meets Sir Henry Curtis and Captain Good, and soon the three of them are on a dangerous journey into the heart of Africa, in search of King Solomon's Mines.

At nineteen Anne Elliot refuses an offer of marriage from Frederick Wentworth, persuaded to do so by Lady Russell, a friend of her dead mother. Wentworth is a sailor, with no money and an uncertain future, says Lady Russell - just a nobody, certainly not worthy of a baronet's daughter. Eight years later Wentworth returns, a rich and successful captain, looking for a wife. Anne is still unmarried, but Captain Wentworth clearly prefers the company of the two.

Back in Britain, Richard Hannay is bored to death after spending years in Africa. He begins to think otherwise when a corpse is found in his London flat and he becomes a murder suspect. Soon he is running for his life across the hills of Scotland.

The story of Hester Prynne, who conceives a daughter through an adulterous affair with an unnamed man. Branded with a scarlet A, and isolated in a strict conformist community intent on pushing her to the fringes of this wild and emerging country, Hester struggles to forge a new, dignified existence with her daughter. Then a mysterious individual arrives, intent on unmasking her companion.

Gulliver has an itch to travel around the world, but whenever he steps on a ship, bad luck seems to find him. He is shipwrecked, abandoned, marooned, and mutinied against, and each time lands in a strange and curious place. First he discovers the kingdom of the six-inch-tall Lilliputians, then the country of the giant Brobdingnagians, then the island of the academic Laputans, which floats in the sky, and finally the noble realm of the horselike Houyhnhnms. Who knew there were so many unusual creatures under the sun.

strange monster has attacked several ships at sea. Professor Arronax, the famous French scientist, his servant Conseil, and Ned Land, who catches whales, join an expedition to search for the monster. What they find, however, is not a living creature at all, but an enormous submarine boat, the Nautilus, commanded by the mysterious Captain Nemo.

When Professor Lidenbrock and his nephew, Axel, find a secret paper telling them the way to the centre of the earth, the adventure of a lifetime begins. With a guide called Hans, they discover the mysteries and wonders of the world below the Earth's surface.

Short stories. Katherine Mansfield wrote some of the best short stories in the English language. These four stories take place about a hundred years ago in England and New Zealand. They are sometimes funny, sometimes sad, and often cruel.

A beautiful young man called Dorian Gray has his portrait painted. He prays that as he gets older, his face will never change and instead the face in the portrait will age. His prayer is answered. As Dorian goes on to explore the pleasures of London, the face in his portrait becomes wrinkled and twisted with cruelty and lust.

This series provides a stimulating introduction to the great classic stories of literature and the best in children's fiction. The books are easy and enjoyable to read, and feature full-page, full-color pictures and photographs. Each title includes interesting information about the authors, and comprehension questions to spark discussion.

Not all men are blind to the faults of the beautiful Bathsheba Everdene. 'She's vain,' thinks a sheep farmer, Gabriel Oak, soon after meeting her. Although he loves her, and asks her to marry him, his direct, honest manner often causes trouble between them.

Long ago, in India, three priests were commanded to look after a yellow diamond, called the Moonstone, until the end of time. Terrible misfortune would come to anyone else who touched it, and to their family. Hundreds of years later, the young and beautiful Rachel Verinder is given the Moonstone as a birthday present. That night the Moonstone is stolen, and the thief is someone in the house. Rachel's mother, Lady Verinder, asks the famous Sergeant Cuff to solve the mystery and catch the thief. But why is Rachel behaving so strangely? And who are the three Indians who seem to follow the Moonstone wherever it goes?

Walter Hartright meets a mysterious woman dressed completely in white, who curiously knows the family he is going to work for as a drawing teacher. Walter soon discovers that the mysterious woman looks very like the woman he has fallen in love with, the beautiful Laura Fairlie. Why is the woman in white so concerned about Laura Fairlie, and why do they look so similar? Can Walter help her before it is too late?