An award-winning story about a family's survival in a small fishing village in India. With their mother drunk, Hari and Lila have to earn the money to keep house and look after their two young sisters. In desperation, Hari runs away to Bombay, and Lila is left to cope alone. Possible prose text for Edexcel GCSE English.

Simon lives three seconds ahead of everyone else, which creates embarrassing problems, such as answering questions that haven't yet been asked and trying to walk through doors that haven't yet been opened. This inventive story takes you on a journey through space-time, while offering valuable lessons in acceptance and understanding. A great mix of...

Dr Carr's mind is firmly made up. Katy and her little sister Clover are to spend a whole year away at boarding school. A strange place, far from home, but on arrival the girls have an inkling that it might turn out to be rather different from their expectations. One thing is for sure, it certainly isn't going to be dull with a girl like Rose Red as...

Billy Bunter makes a surprising appearance in the Remove soccer team when Smithy the Bounder is sacked for the remainder of the term by the captain, Harry Wharton. Cripes! Following the usual order of chaos, this leads to the resignation of many members of the team in protest. Meanwhile, the Fat Owl of the Remove plots to booby trap Smithy in his s...

With his dad out of the picture and his mum working full time, six-year-old John's grandad ends up looking after him most of the time. But John doesn't mind - he loves his grandad, even if they don't always see eye to eye. In fact, much of the time they get on each others nerves! When it comes to the important things though, Grandad and John know j...

Despite his Mum's insistence, Sam doesn't want to be friends with Davey; he thinks Davey's a first class, grade A, top of the dung-heap moron. But one day Davey saves Sam's life and a bond is formed between them. Sam is still embarrassed to be seen with Davey, but little by little he has to admit, when it's just the two of them, Davey is a lot of f...

Alice is growing up in the grey world of post-war London. Her escape is her imagination, which always brightens her day. But when a new boy starts school, her mind begins to play tricks on her, and whenever they are together the world becomes a more exciting place.

Whenever the young Prince Brat misbehaves, Jemmy is punished in his place, for it is illegal to spank the heir to the throne. But when the prince decided to run away, he demands that Jemmy come with him. Once in the forest they are captured by two criminals. Can they escape and find their way out of danger and back to the city?

A BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatisation of the enchanting children's classic. Matthew and Marilla Cuthbert have sent to the orphanage for a boy. So when a skinny, red-haired girl turns up, she is not quite what they had in mind. Anne Shirley soon sets the quiet island community of Avonlea talking of little else. With her incessant chatter and intense...

When 10-year-old Will's father dies, his mother surprises him with a trip to Indonesia. But little could she have known what awaited them both there. The first Will knows that anything is wrong is when Oona, the elephant he is riding along the beach, begins to spook. Then, suddenly, she takes off into the jungle with Will on her back. And that's wh...

Little Women begins the much-loved story of the March sisters, Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy. The girls grow up amidst the turmoil, adventures and hardships of the American Civil War. The household is presided over by Mrs. March, 'Marmee', who tries to rule with kindness and to create harmony amongst her four little women.

Tolkien's famous saga, the prelude to 'The Lord of the Rings', has all the ingredients of fantasy and adventure: dwarves, elves, goblins and trolls, a fearsome dragon, a great wizard, a perilous quest and a dramatic climax. At the centre is the unsuspecting hero Bilbo Baggins, a home-loving, unambitious Hobbit who is suddenly thrust into the bigges...

Reading of three of the original books written by the Rev W Awdry that the TV series was based on. The books are: Three Railway Engines, Thomas the Tank Engine & James the Red Engine.

A stone circle spells danger for Sarah Jane Smith and friends, in a thrilling new adventure read by Elisabeth Sladen. Sarah Jane is helping out on a school trip with Luke, Maria and Clyde's class. On the way home, the group stop off at The Stone Whisperers, a dozen standing stones enclosed by a dome. Set apart from the circle is a thirteenth stone:...

A BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatisation of the first book in Philip Pullman's trilogy 'His Dark Materials'. Set in a world which is like, yet very unlike, our own, the story begins in Oxford. Children are disappearing from the streets, and when Lyra's friend Roger also vanishes she sets out to find him. The story mixes science, theology and magic to...

A letter from an old friend she can't remember sparks off another adventure for Sarah Jane, as she and her friends explore the village of Wolfenden. What is the secret of the white wolf carved on the hillside - and what does it have to do with alien abduction?

Dorothy and her little dog Toto befriend the Tinman, the Scarecrow and the Cowardly Lion as they travel down the yellow brick road to the City of Emeralds. Maureen Lipman cackles splendidly as the Wicked Witch of the West in this BBC Radio 4 dramatisation of L. Frank Baum's famous and much-loved tale.

Up early one morning, Sarah Jane is astonished to see that the house opposite hers has changed overnight: what used to be a nondescript 1970s family home has been replaced by a smart Victorian residence. How did a house from 1884 suddenly materialise in Bannerman Road? Where has the old O'Brien place gone? And more importantly, who, or what, has ca...

A full-cast dramatisation of Kipling's classic animal adventure starring Eartha Kitt. Rudyard Kipling's famous tale tells the story of Mowgli, the 'man-cub' rescued from the tiger Shere Khan and adopted by a wolf pack. As he grows up, Mowgli learns the ways of the jungle from Baloo the bear, Bagheera the black panther and Kaa the rock python. His l...

BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatisation of the classic American tale. When Pollyanna's father dies, she is sent to live with her only surviving relative, the rich but stern Aunt Polly. Pollyanna's joy soon turns to disappointment when her spinster aunt gives her a cold greeting and tells her she is to stay in the attic. It's not the welcome Pollyanna e...

A BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatisation of the second book in Philip Pullman's trilogy 'His Dark Materials'. The story begins in Oxford, where Will Parry is desperate to discover the truth about his disappeared father. Climbing through an extraordinary window in the air, Will meets Lyra and her personal daemon - who we first met in 'Northern Lights'....