This collection of short plays is an adaptation of traditional stories from around the world. The stories have been selected not only because they have remained favourites over time but also for their creative possibilities in terms of reading aloud, elocution and drama. The happy man's shirt is a story from Europe. From Greece we have the tales of Hercules and the cart-driver, Mercury and the woodcutter and Philemon and Baucis. The paper-maker, a story from China, tells us how the festival of lanterns began. And from Arabia we have the story of The two brothers.

The Orient Blackswan Easy Readers introduce the child to the enchanting world of reading which encouraging him/her to read with little or no external help. These beautifully-illustrated books are carefully graded into seven levels. The series begins at Level 1 and is meant for beginners at the age group of 5 to 7 years. The other levels are: Level 2: 6-8 years, Level 3: 7-9 years, Level 4: 9-10 years, Level 5: 10-12 years, Level 6: 11-14 years and Level 7: 15 years and above. This careful grading is based on age-appropriate vocabulary and structure which enables the reader to progress through the successive levels. The current titles mainly include the classics and titles that suit modern tastes and interests.

The Orient Blackswan Easy Readers introduce the child to the enchanting world of reading which encouraging him/her to read with little or no external help. These beautifully-illustrated books are carefully graded into seven levels. The series begins at Level 1 and is meant for beginners at the age group of 5 to 7 years. The other levels are: Level 2: 6-8 years, Level 3: 7-9 years, Level 4: 9-10 years, Level 5: 10-12 years, Level 6: 11-14 years and Level 7: 15 years and above. This careful grading is based on age-appropriate vocabulary and structure which enables the reader to progress through the successive levels. The current titles mainly include the classics and titles that suit modern tastes and interests.

Great Expectations (1861), one of Dickens s later novels is more mature and serious than his earlier works and less harsh and critical of Victorian society that Dickens is known to caricature. This novel, whose hero Pip is an orphan, reads more like a detective story. The story opens with little Pip meeting an escaped convict in the churchyard on a cold December evening in an almost surreal setting. As the story unfolds, we find Pip asked to wait upon a strange old lady, Miss Havisham, and becoming infatuated with her beautiful ward, Estella. Soon thereafter, Pip inherits a handsome property left to him by an unknown benefactor. He leaves for London, soon forgets his childhood friends and leads a life of leisure. After Pip s twenty-fifth birthday, his benefactor makes himself known and Pip realises the irony of his good fortune. With the unravelling of his own position, Pip grows in moral stature. Great Expectations is the story of Pip s coming of age.

The Call of the Wild (1905), considered a classic, is a story of survival and grid. It is the enduring tale of Buck, the half sheepdog, stolen from his comfortable Californian home to work as a sledge dog in the Northland. London creates an imaginative natural universe, where the main character, the dog Buck behaves and thinks with rational dog-logic.

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