Variety books provide a support and an extension of reading skills acquired from reading Duck Green School Stories. They are divided into consolidation stories and extension stories. They cover a wide range of genres, authors and writing styles. The Stage 1 Consolidation cluster ("Magical World Stories") consists of 3 amusing stories about children who see the world in a surprising and magical way. Louise Gardner's colourful illustrations will instantly appeal to young readers. These stories consolidate the vocabulary learned in the Stage 1 Duck Green Stories. The Stage 1 Extension cluster ("Around the World Stories" by Cynthia Rider) comprises three traditional tales from other cultures, sensitively illustrated by Rhian Nest James. These stories extend vocabulary from Stage 1. The books are available in both standard and 'big book' format.

 

This book features in the following series: Oxford Literacy Web, Variety .

. This book is part of a reading scheme, meaning that it is a book aimed at children who are learning to read.

There are 12 pages in this book. This book was published 1999 by Oxford University Press .

CELIA WARREN's children's poems and stories have appeared in numerous anthologies; been broadcast on BBC Schools TV and Radio; used in verse-speaking festivals and some have been set to music. Celia has titles with a number of educational publishers. Pippa Goodhart is an award winning bestselling author, known for the Winne the Witch series and her Sally Murphy is a mother, wife, teacher, speaker, website manager and reviewer as well as an author. She was born in Perth and now lives in Corrigin, in the wheatbelt of Western Australia. In 2001 she decided to dedicate herself to her dream of becoming a children's author and has now published 28 books. Sally lives with her husband and five of her six children in a small town in rural Western Australia. Rhian Nest James has been working as a freelance illustrator for many years after graduating from Exeter College of Art with an Honours Degree in Illustration. She has produced illustrations for a wide variety of publishers and organizations but her speciality is children's books having illustrated over 60 and contributed illustrations to many more. Rhian moved to Sydney from her native Wales in 2002 and she continues to illustrate including the highly successful series Samurai Kids. Louise Gardner graduated from Wolverhampton University with a BA Honours degree in Visual Communication. She has been an illustrator ever since, and her worked has appeared on children's nightwear, mugs, soft toys, food packaging, tents and sleeping bags, as well as in children's books. As a child, Louise was always armed with a felt tip pen - in fact, she once had to go to hospital to have a pen lid removed from her nose! And when she was 7 years old she gave one of her drawings to the Queen at a Silver Jubilee celebration. Louise once had a pet rabbit called Socks and her favourite childhood toy was a rabbit called Susan! She lives in Somerset in a converted church beside a canal.