Top 10 Summer Reads
Get ready for summer with this Top 10 summer reads! Join Lisa and Alice on their 'celebrity' holiday, travel the world with Phileas Fogg and read up on history and culture with our latest Cultural Readers. What's going to be your next adventure?
For cheeful summer resources and other seasonal activities, visit our Summer of Culture page on the Macmillan Readers website.
Level: Starter
Best friends Lisa and Alice start their holiday. They are staying in a pretty hotel and looking forward to enjoying the island. But there is an added excitement. Are the rumours true that a celebrity couple are staying in the hotel next door? This adventure story is a sequel to Photo Finish, also at Starter level.
Level: Starter
Phileas Fogg makes a bet with his friends that he can travel around the world in 80 days. This is the wonderful story of Phileas's adventures as he travels from country to country with his servant Passepartout.
Level: Beginner
It is the summer of 1797 and the officers of the British Navy fear that there will be further mutinies amongst the sailors who have had to endure the terrible conditions on board British ships. Billy Budd is handsome, strong, reliable, efficient and loyal. But he is victimised by Claggart, the vindictive and cruel master-at-arms, who accuses him of insubordination.
Level: Elementary
Twelve-year-old Jim Hawkins sails with the Squire Trelawney to search for Captain Flint's treasure. But Long John Silver is on board The Hispaniola and he and his friends want the treasure for themselves. The story of Jim's adventure has been popular with young readers since it was first published in 1883.
Level: Elementary
The Quest is the name of Mark Blackburn's boat. Mark, a marine archaeologist, is joined by John Morgan in his search for wrecks of sixteenth century Chinese trading-ships submerged deep in the sea off the Gulf of Thailand. When a local fisherman brings a piece of rare porcelain to his boat, Mark is thrilled and can hardly wait to go to the place where the fisherman has netted the extremely valuable artefact. But John and Mark's enthusiasm turns to horror when they find the fisherman drowned the very next day.
Level: Pre-intermediate
The young Robinson Crusoe ignores his father's advice and decides to become a sailor. But Crusoe is soon caught up in violent storms and finds himself shipwrecked on a remote island where he must live for the next 28 years.
Level: Pre-intermediate
This Reader provides an informative overview of Italian history, art, culture, geography and climate, food, fashion, sport and more. Italy is a country in Europe. Italy has a rich history of empires and great thinkers, and has been a centre for Western culture for thousands of years.
Level: Intermediate
A delightful and romantic story set in 1922. Unhappy in rain-soaked London, four very different women answer an advertisement to rent a mediaeval castle for the month of April. There, amidst the sunshine and flowers, they rediscover happiness.
Level: Intermediate
An adventure thriller set in Turkey. Tom Smith flies to Istanbul to join his fiancée for a holiday, but Angela fails to meet him that evening as arranged. The next morning Tom has some terrible news...
Level: Upper Intermediate
This Reader provides an informative overview of Australian history, culture, its people, geography and climate, food, sport and more. Australia is the sixth largest country in the world and the only one that covers a whole continent. Despite its size, Australia has a small population at just over 23 million.