Author:Jacqueline Wilson,Nick Sharratt

Penguin Readers is an ELT graded reader series for learners of English as a foreign language. With carefully adapted text, new illustrations and language learning exercises, the print edition also includes instructions to access supporting material online.
Titles include popular classics, exciting contemporary fiction, and thought-provoking non-fiction, introducing language learners to bestselling authors and compelling content.
The eight levels of Penguin Readers follow the Common European Framework of Reference for language learning (CEFR). Exercises at the back of each Reader help language learners to practise grammar, vocabulary, and key exam skills. Before, during and after-reading questions test readers' story comprehension and develop vocabulary.
The Story of Tracy Beaker, a Level 2 Reader, is A1+ in the CEFR framework. Sentences contain a maximum of two clauses, introducing the future tenses will and going to, present continuous for future meaning, and comparatives and superlatives. It is well supported by illustrations, which appear on most pages.
Ten-year-old Tracy Beaker lives in a children's home. No one wants Tracy because she is very naughty. But one day, a writer, Cam, comes to the children's home and changes Tracy's life.
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Serpell is a terrific destabiliser, even at the level of the sentence... There are no tidy moral lessons at the end of her dissonant and time-contorting fable - no bones to bury, no truth to pin, no mysteries solved - only the inescapable rhythms of loss
—— Beejay Silcox , The GuardianA masterfully intelligent and many-sided book
—— The TelegraphThe Furrows...confirms Serpell's place as one of the most innovative and intelligent writers today
—— Financial TimesIn Namwali Serpell's hands, grief is a kind of possession. The Furrows is a piercing, sharply written novel about the conjuring power of loss
—— Raven Leilani, author of LusterMasterful: a blend of self-knowing, sincere and spry... Serpell's sentences are unhurried, yet detailed, smart and brisk
—— Sunday TelegraphNamwali Serpell's deep unity of imagery and voice is at the employ of a wild talent for narrative pivot and surprise; what seems at first a meditation on family trauma unfolds through the urgency of an amnesiac puzzle-thriller, then a violently compelling love story. The final pages take flight with visionary intensity. The Furrows is a genuine tour de force
—— Jonathan Lethem, author of The ArrestWho could have imagined that a novel about loss and long grieving could be so soaring, so sexy, so luminously beautiful and poetic, such a rich and shimmeringly scored piece for three voices?... We are lucky to have this alive, exhilarating novel remind us how inexhaustible and surprising the form is and continues to be
—— Neel Mukherjee, author of The Lives of OthersWhat makes The Furrows so thrilling is its ability to constantly surprise and keep us on the edge of our seats. But its real brilliance rests in Namwali Serpell's bold and audacious refusal to allow the complicated layers of guilt and grief to remain unexplored. In this spectacular and genre-bending book, she has permanently shifted the ground beneath us, and where we stand by the end is in a new place where mourning and longing and sensuality not only exist at once, but transform into something revelatory, and perhaps even healing
—— Maaza Mengiste, author of The Shadow KingThe furrows of grief, in Namwali Serpells's telling, are a surreal and hypnotic fantasy. This book reads like a ghost story, a murder mystery, a thriller, a redemptive love story that never loses its knife edge of danger. A daring and masterful book about how we respond to the mystery of death
—— Kiran Desai, author of The Inheritance of LossNamwali Serpell has written a stunning and highly original novel exploring the erotic shadow-life of grief. In Serpell's hands, longing becomes a story of uncanny repetition, and the logic of dreams feels intensely, compellingly real
—— Isabella Hammad, author of The ParisianBeautifully written... it blew me away
—— Zoe Wicomb, author of Still LifeNamwali Serpell's gift soars...She takes pain and loss and cooks up a storm. Currents of grief, guilt and greed are unpicked with ruthless precision. . . The Furrows establishes her as a literary powerhouse
—— Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi, author of The First WomanGrief is dogged company. It shapeshifts and proliferates, hijacking thoughts and ravaging sleep. But Namwali Serpell's riveting prose urges me to believe that sometimes the true work of grief is to rupture us so thoroughly, we become capable of telling--and living--another story
—— Tracy K. Smith, poet and author of Ordinary LightThe Furrows is a deeply felt novel that deserves to be read. So eloquent and assured that I easily fell into this sweeping, gut-wrenching tale of loss, grief, and identity
—— Nicole Dennis-Benn, author of Here Comes the SunBrilliant... A heart-racing, heart-wrenching stunner that sizzles, with complex questions floating under the thrilling story. This is a novel not to be missed
—— Nafissa Thompson-Spires, author of Heads of the Colored PeopleThe Furrows is a triumph, a book that succeeds brilliantly in reconfiguring and retuning itself in pursuit of its essential subject. In this novel of grief, time flows, stretches, collapses, bends, stutters, and echoes, responsive, as it must be, to loss. Namwali Serpell narrates with an acute awareness of what resists and eludes conventional narration, producing a story that is wonderfully unpredictable, arresting, haunting
—— Jamel Brinkley, author of A Lucky ManIf The Old Drift was an epic effort to outdo Marquez and Rushdie, this slippery yet admirably controlled novel aspires to outdo Toni Morrison, and it earns the comparison. It's deeply worthy of rereading and debate. Stylistically refreshing and emotionally intense, cementing Serpell's place among the best writers going
—— Kirkus[Serpell captures] the child's-eye perspective with great flair...along with the secrecy and judgement of the adult world
—— Times Literary SupplementAn endlessly innovative and deeply moving exploration of grief and family
—— White Review, *Books of the Year*Highly accomplished
—— London Review of BooksThis raw and powerful read shows Carrie growing and learning, about herself as much as others. Though she's an abrasive character, readers will cheer her on every step of the way
—— Sunday ExpressTJR is surely the queen of escapist fiction
—— Sunday TelegraphThis top-rank tale of beating the odds is full of heart and breezy charm
—— MetroAltogether, it makes for a gripping and engaging read about a woman persevering against all odds, recognising your limits and knowing when to push back. As well as a complex and nuanced character study, Carrie Soto is Back offers its readers a warm-hearted story of the love between a father and a daughter, as well a tender journey of learning how to love yourself and open up to others too. Between the action-packed tennis matches, Carrie's emotional reckoning and the wider commentary of women having to continuously fight for recognition in male-dominated fields, Taylor Jenkins Reid has crafted another compelling novel that effortlessly draws in readers and will no doubt keep them thinking about Carrie Soto long after they turn the final page
—— CultureflyAt times, her prose is so engaging that you feel as though you are waiting on the baseline while Soto gets ready to serve an unstoppable ace
—— Independent (Ireland)In Carrie Soto is Back, as at Flushing Meadows this and next month, there are great rivalries, millions of dollars and legacies on the line. Letting go cuts deep. But, boy, there is glamour
—— TatlerThe author has created another heroine we can't quite work out whether we like, but we're rooting for her anyway because she's fabulous
—— Woman's WeeklyAnother delectable slice of escapism drama
—— Living NorthPacy, propulsive and utterly immersive, you're going to want to read this
—— ElleTaylor has done it again . . . a brilliant and dynamic book about what it means to be an ambitious woman- for better or for worse
—— WomanWith a wonderfully complex character, a world you can't help being seduced by, and an important message about it never being too late, TJR has served up another ace
—— HeatFrank, funny and emotional
—— Marie ClaireA fascinatingly realistic look into the world of elite sports where driven and flawed characters' private lives are just as intriguing and controversial as they are on the court
—— Business PostThis is a well-researched, exciting and genuinely tender book
—— RTÉ