New Windmills KS4 – serie

Touching the Void is a heart-stopping, true account of Joe Simpson's terrifying adventure in the Peruvian Andes. He and his climbing partner, Simon, reached the summit of the remote peak, Siula Grande. A few days later, Simon staggered into base camp, exhausted and frost-bitten, with news that Joe was dead. What really happened to Joe makes not only an epic of survival but a compelling testament of friendship.

Nobody knew who Shane was, or why he was travelling. He rode into a Wyoming homesteader's corral in the summer of 1889 and settled for a while with the Starrett family. Young Bob Starrett tells the classic story of that summer and fall, and the quiet stranger who kept his well-oiled Colt in his saddle-roll, but could use it to deadly effect when the need arose.

One of a series of fiction titles for schools. Scout, the keen-eyed narrator, and her brother Jem interrupt their games to champion their lawyer father when, in a hostile, racist town in the American South, he battles to defend Tom, who is black and accused of murder.

Little Albert Kropp; Muller who still carries his schoolbooks; Leer, with an eye for the girls and Paul Baumer missed by his sick mother—these are four classmates who have volunteered for the German army in 1914, with youthful optimism. This is the story of their First World War—theirs and millions like them. We read of carnage and shell-shock, but also of small comforts and jokes, tricks to get extra rations, stretches of boredom and banality. No novel has portrayed more universally what Owen, writing of the same period, called "the pity of war".

When a woman refuses to sit next to him on the bus, Rick Braithwaite is saddened by her prejudice. In cosmopolitan London, he had hoped for a more enlightened attitude. When he begins his first teaching job in a tough East End school, the reactions are the same. Slowly and painfully, some of the barriers are broken down, but his story is still very relevant today.

Winner of International Man Booker Prize 2007.

Old Major, the boar, dreams of farms run by animals for animals, with liberty and equality for all. When the animals of Manor Farm, led by the pigs Napoleon and Snowball, drive out Farmer Jones and set up Animal Farm, the dream seems to be coming true. But as the pigs become more powerful Old Major's vision turns horribly sour.

Evoking the mood of the American Twenties, and wealthy lives filled with excess and illusion, this is the story of Jay Gatsby's yearning for the beautiful Daisy.

Charlie Gordon, a retarded adult, undergoes a brain operation which dramatically increases his intelligence. Charlie becomes a genius. But can he cope emotionally? Can he develop relationships? And how do the psychiatrists and psychologists view Charlie—as a man or as the subject of an experiment like the mouse Algernon?

One of a series of fiction titles for schools, this is Orwell's classic novel in which every aspect of life is controlled by the State. Winston Smith thinks he's alone in remembering an earlier time when men and women lived by instincts and loved with passion, but then he meets Julia.

When Ben shows his pupils a film about the Nazis' persecution of the Jews, they can't believe it could happen. So he introduces a new disciplinary system in an attempt to shown them how powerful group pressure can be. But things get out of hand.

One of the New Windmills series for schools, this is the story of Offred, one of the few women in the Republic of Gilead left with functioning ovaries, whose only function it is to breed. If she deviates, she will be hanged as a dissenter. But Offred is determined to find a way out.

Silas Marner has lived in Raveloe for years, but he remains alone, a weaver mistrusted by the village people. Then Eppie arrives and changes his life forever. Includes an introduction, notes and activities to enhance students' understanding and enjoyment of the novel.  Age 14+

This series provides unabridged versions of pre-20th-century novels, complete with an introduction, glossary, extended writing questions and activities. Their sewn binding and hard laminated covers make them hardwearing for class use.

When Sir Charles Baskerville is found dead on his estate on Dartmoor the locals believe he died of unnatural causes. His friend, Dr Mortimer, thinks supernatural forces may have been at work in the shape of a mysterious, evil hound that haunts the Baskerville family. It takes Sherlock Holmes, with his razor-sharp mind, to solve the mystery . . . This title is unabridged. Age 14+