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The Monkey's Paw and Jerry Bundler (Classic Frights)

W. W. Jacobs

The White family are delighted when a friend gives them a monkey's paw that will grant them three wishes. They gain a little but at what cost? The paw turns happiness to fear and despair. Collins Soundbites is a revolutionary series of readers for students who are struggling to achieve NC level 4 at Key Stage 3. The Monkey's Paw has a Reading Age of 8-9, with 40 words per page. Six readers are published in a pack at each stage or level of ability. Soundbites is the first series of readers for students with poor literacy that delivers the curriculum. Also available are Mixed Packs that contain six different readers at each of the three stages (stage 1: reading age 6-7; stage 2: age 7-8; stage 3: age 8-9). Two thirds of each book is 'narrative' style text. One third of each book covers information, using a variety of text types such as autobiographies, biographies, journals, diaries, letters (personal and formal), travel writing, leaflets, reports, reviews, adverts, newspaper/magazine articles, tables. Specialised, difficult or technical vocabulary explained on the page, plus a one-page glossary at the end. The topics covered address the KS3 curriculum in different areas. Photocopiable teaching resources, containing a range of literacy-boosting activities, are available in the Soundbites Bumper Pack.
Casting the Runes (Classic Frights Series)

M. R. James

When we think of ghost stories, we tend to think of cub scouts cringing by a fire, s'mores at the ready, as some aging camp counselor tries to scare them witless with yet another tale from the crypt. But as Michael Chabon's marvelous introduction reminds us, the ghost story was once integral to the genre of the short story. Indeed, as he points out, it can be argued that the ghost story was the genre. Dickens's "A Christmas Carol," Henry James's "The Turn of the Screw"--most of the early short story writers wrote ghost stories as a matter of course. And the best writer of ghost stories, the acknowledged master, was M.R. James.
In Casting the Runes, we have twenty-one tales that, in Chabon's words, "venture to the limits of the human capacity for terror and revulsion...armed only with an umbrella and a very dry wit." The stories here represent the best of James's work. They are set in the leisurely, late-Victorian, middle-class world of country houses, seaside inns, out-of-the-way railway stations, and cathedral closes, where gentlemen of independent means and antiquarian tastes suddenly find themselves confronted by terrifying agents of supernatural malice. But what these tales are really about, writes Chabon, "is ultimately the breathtaking fragility of life, of 'reality,' of all the structures that we have erected to defend ourselves from our constant nagging suspicion that underlying everything is chaos, brutal and unreasoning."
The tales in Casting the Runes are both chilling fun and, as Chabon concludes, "unmistakably works of art." Anyone who loves short fiction or who enjoys a good scare will find these stories an irresistible delight.
The Inexperienced Ghost: And the Temptation of Harringay (Classic Frights Series)

H. G. Wells

In two turn-of-the-century tales, a young Englishman and an artist have unexpected encounters with the supernatural which cause each of them to make life-changing choices.
Man-Size in Marble (Classic Frights)

Edith Nesbit

When newlyweds find the cottage of their dreams in the English countryside, they are warned that long-ago owners, two evil knights, always return on Halloween night.
The Body Snatcher (Classic Frights)

Robert Louis Stevenson

Scotland, 1815. Fettes, a young medical student, is learning more than he ever wanted to know about corpses. He is shocked to realize that the corpses they are using in class are not donated, but rather stolen from fresh graves--and now he must get himself a new one. Fettes thinks he's up to this terrifying task, but he can't anticipate what will happen that night--or the body that will haunt him for the rest of his life. Adapted from the short story by Robert Louis Stevenson, this easy-to-read, edge-of-your-seat version will grab reluctant readers who expect a good scare!