"Penguin Readers" is a series of simplified novels, film novelizations and original titles that introduce students at all levels to the pleasures of reading in English. Originally designed for teaching English as a foreign language, the series' combination of high interest level and low reading age makes it suitable for both English-speaking teenagers with limited reading skills and students of English as a second language. Many titles in the series also provide access to the pre-20th century literature strands of the National Curriculum English Orders. "Penguin Readers" are graded at seven levels of difficulty, from "Easystarts" with a 200-word vocabulary, to Level 6 (Advanced) with a 3000-word vocabulary. In addition, titles fall into one of three sub-categories: "Contemporary", "Classics" or "Originals". At the end of each book there is a section of enjoyable exercises focusing on vocabulary building, comprehension, discussion and writing. Some titles in the series are available with an accompanying audio cassette, or in a book and cassette pack.
Additionally, selected titles have free accompanying "Penguin Readers Factsheets" which provide stimulating exercise material for students, as well as suggestions for teachers on how to exploit the Readers in class.
The world is slowly dying as a result of a nuclear holocaust, and the people of Melbourne Australia are doing what about it? Nothing! No one is struggling with knowing how much life is left for them, no one is trying to find a way to survive; they are just sitting there waiting for the radiation to float towards them. For a post-apocalyptic book, there is nothing happening in it; all the characters are playing nice and not even living life as though it would end in a few months (they continue to buy presents for their children, plant their garden, etc.) While I did enjoy the fact that I knew the cities in the book – Townsville gets a lot of mentions – I don’t think the plot progressed enough to recommend this book to anyone. If you want a slow moving post-apocalyptic book then I’d recommend Cormac McCarthy’s Pulitzer Prize winning novel The Road; it’s dark, beautiful and has great characters.
Reading updates
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Started reading
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8 June, 2011:
Finished reading
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8 June, 2011:
Reviewed