Dominoes Starter

'Today you can go round the world in eighty days,' says Phileas Fogg. 'Do it, and I pay you 20,000 pounds,' says his friend Stuart. This is the beginning of one of Jules Verne's most exciting stories. Phileas Fogg must get back to London by December...

Hal works at the zoo every day and his life isn't exciting until he meets Tim. Tim is a movie star. He has a difficult life, and he is unhappy until he meets Hal. But when they meet, and agree to change places, interesting things start to happen. And,...

'I'm not going with you, Aunt Dete!' Heidi cries. 'Oh yes, you are!' Dete answers. Heidi loves her home in the Swiss mountains, her grandfather, and her friend Peter, the goatherd. So when Aunt Dete takes her away to Frankfurt, she doesn't leave...

Hercules is the strongest man in the world, but one day he does something very bad. The priestess at Delphi tells him: 'The gods are angry with you. For twelve years you must work for King Eurystheus, and do twelve tasks for him. When you finish, the...

In Hamburg, Germany, Professor Otto Lidenbrock comes home with an old Icelandic book. In it there is a message about a journey to the centre of the Earth. This is the beginning of one of Jules Verne's most exciting stories. 'Is this message true? We...

One cold winter morning, a famous movie star and her teenage daughter are driving along a country road... A blue van is waiting for them. Tom is in the van, but he's not a kidnapper – he's an artist. He usually draws pictures for adventure stories....

'My friend Queequeg and I are looking for whaling work,' Ishmael says. Ishmael is a sailor from New York. With Queequeg the harpooner, he takes work on Captain Ahab's whaling-ship, the Pequod. The ship's first mate, Starbuck, wants to hunt whales for...

Perseus is the son of Danae, Princess of Argos, and the god Zeus. When he is very young, his mother moves with him to live on the island of Seriphos. Later, Polydectes – the king of Seriphos – wants to marry Danae. Perseus says 'no' to this, so...

In the first of these stories, Rip van Winkle sleeps for over twenty years, and then wakes up to a world that he no longer understands.In the other story, Ichabod Crane, the school teacher, meets a headless rider in the middle of a dark night.These...

King Shahriyar cannot trust women. Every afternoon he marries a wife, but the next morning he always kills her. One day, the Vizier cannot find any more wives for the King. What can he do? 'I can be Shahriyar's new wife!' says Sheherazade, his older...

Sinbad the sailor spends many years at sea. He visits strange countries, meets some strange people and some very frightening animals. He is sometimes rich, sometimes poor... and always in danger. But all the time he is learning from his adventures,...

'Bring me something new and exciting. Bring me a BIG story!' says Rosie's editor at The Record newspaper. And, when she leaves the office, Rosie does find a story. A story that is bigger than she expects. A story that takes her across Europe, into a...

The Happy Prince is a beautiful golden statue high up on a column in the city. Everyone loves him. He feels sad about the city's poor people, but what can he do? He can't leave his column. Then the swallow arrives, and helps the Happy Prince to do...

'What's your job?' Yukio asks. 'I'm a sorcerer,' the old man smiles, 'and I need a young apprentice.' One day, Yukio - a young boy from old Japan - leaves his sister in the country and looks for a job in the town. He finds interesting work there, as a...

Prospero, the Duke of Milan, and his daughter Miranda are far away from home, alone on an island in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea. They want to return to Milan...Then, one day, Prospero sees a ship near the island carrying his greatest enemies....

Tristan and Isolde are in love, but Isolde must marry King Mark. So a happy love story seems impossible...The lovers meet every day but then, one night, King Mark finds them together. Now Tristan must leave the castle, but he is badly hurt and dying....

'I see Troy in flames years from now - because Paris brings disaster to us,' Queen Hecuba says about her son. Paris's father, King Priam, wants to kills him. But Paris lives, and later loves Helen - King Menelaus's queen - from Greece. When Paris...

The men and the woman in this book - William Tell, Tom Blood, Lord Bao, King Matthias, Johnny Appleseed, and Lady Godiva - are all real people from history. But every time someone tells an old story, they change things in it, to make them bigger,...