World Stories
ELT Reading from around the World.
Traditional stories
from around the world
Captivating collections of traditional stories from around the world, from Ancient Greece and Scandinavia to the British Isles, Central and South America, Africa, Russia, Korea, China and more!
- Stories retold at levels A2, B1 and B2 of the CEFR level.
- Full colour illustrations - original artwork and photos throughout each book.
- Pre-reading activities before each story to introduce vocabulary, encourage prediction and motivate.
- After-reading activities after each story to encourage personal reaction and stimulate thinking and creativity.
- Informative texts available online to explore CLIL and cultural connections with the stories.
- Stimulating Internet search activities.
- Cambridge Key, Preliminary and First-style activities available online.
- Downloadable audio of the stories and additional texts.
- Teacher's Book with key, background information and extra activities.
ELT reading titles
The Quetzal Bird and other stories
Jennifer Gascoigne and Robert Hill
KEY Level CEFR A2
“Well written, interesting folk tales from all over the world. Each story will be attractive to learners. Also illustrations are very well presented and help learners to visualise the imaginary stories.”
Jurors’ comment, Language Learner Literature Awards 2019 (Extensive Reading Foundation)
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The Woman and the Tiger and other stories
Jennifer Gascoigne and Robert Hill
Level CEFR B1.1 PRELIMINARY
“...the stories reflect cultural diversity and, undoubtedly, pique the interest of learners from varied cultural backgrounds.”
Materials review, IATEFL Voices 274, May/June 2020
King Yunan and Duban the Doctor and other stories
Jennifer Gascoigne and Robert Hill
Level CEFR B1.2 PRELIMINARY
“... while these stories are anchored in folklore and historical pasts, the use of web links and online search activities add a real-world dimension to the content.”
Materials review, IATEFL Voices 274, May/June 2020.
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Jennifer Gascoigne and Robert Hill
Level CEFR B2.1 FIRST
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and other stories
“This interesting collection includes five different stories from five different parts of the world. Each one is quite thought-provoking and extremely well-written. They are simply told, yet at the same time quite lyrical and moving.
Reading such a book would contribute to learners' general world knowledge (in addition to their language skills) as well as intrinsically motivate them. When one looks at the table of contents, it might seem like quite an odd and random selection, yet we also think one would, in the end, be very impressed. Each story would be sure to spark a lot of classroom discussion, too.”
Jurors’ comment, Language Learner Literature Awards 2021 (Extensive Reading Foundation
Teacher’s Books
Invaluable teaching resources, packed with support and information.
Each of the four books is accompanied by a comprehensive Teacher’s Book of over forty pages, which contains information, instructions and suggestions for each story.
The Teacher’s Book provides all of the following for each story!
- A summary of the story
- Background information, which tells the teacher the historical and cultural context of the story
- Connections with other stories, showing how similar themes, plots and characters occur in stories from all over the world
- Keys to all the activities: answers to all the objective questions, suggested responses for all the open activities
- Extra activities: a wealth of optional further activities (all with answers and responses)
- Websites for the activities that involve searching the web, plus suggested results for the searches
- Expanding articles, which give students factual information about topics suggested by the story
- Optional exam practice: the expanding articles are also given in gapped form as in the Cambridge English Key, Preliminary and First exams (plus answers)
Read a detailed description by Robert Hill of the activities in the World Stories series.