Orphans Home

Little Mary Lennox is a bad-tempered, disagreeable child. When her parents die in India, she is sent back to England to live with her uncle in a big, lonely, old house. There is nothing to do all day except walk in the gardens – and watch the robin flying over the high walls of the secret garden . . . which has been locked for ten years. And no one has the key. An Oxford Bookworms Library reader for learners of English, adapted from the Frances Hodgson Burnett original by Clare West.

The author uses his well-known style to ask young listeners serious questions that sharpen their critical thinking skills and lead to real understanding of complex issues. What Is a Family? tackles difficult questions regarding the fast-changing face of contemporary families. Values of an ideal family and the problems that occur in real families are all open for discussion.

Nobody wants to adopt the Shluffmuffin twins. Wally's feet stink something awful, and Cheyenne is allergic to everything. Then why are the Mandible sisters so eager to take them home? And what sort of old maids would choose to live in a place called Dripping Fang Forest, where zombies wander the woods singing "Itsy Bitsy Spider" and 10-foot-long glowing slugs want to suck the feet right off your ankles?