King Arthur

by Janet Hardy-Gould

It is the year 650 in England. There is war everywhere because the old king is dead and he has no son. Only when the new king comes can the fighting stop and the strange, magical story of King Arthur begin. But first, Merlin the ancient magician has to find a way of finding the next king...

40 pages, Paperback

First published December 6, 2007

About the author

Janet Hardy-Gould is a graded reader author whose books are hugely popular with teachers and students around the world. She has written a wide range of graded readers for Oxford University Press. These include Ellis Island: Rosalia's Story (Oxford Dominoes) which won the Extensive Reading Foundation (ERF) award in 2020 and Merlin (Oxford Dominoes) which won the ERF award in 2015, plus Amelia Earhart (Oxford Bookworms Library) which was shortlisted for the ERF final in 2015, and Women Who Made A Difference which was shortlisted in 2025. You can follow Janet's Facebook Page at https://www.facebook.com/JanetHardyGo...
Her best-selling titles include Henry VIII and his Six Wives (Oxford Bookworms Library) and Sherlock Holmes: The Emerald Crown (Oxford Dominoes). Many of her works are cartoons or highly-illustrated books for students starting out in English and they include Sinbad, Mulan, Ali Baba and The Great Fire of London (Oxford Dominoes Starters).
Janet believes that graded readers are one of the fastest and most enjoyable ways for learners to improve their English and a wonderful tool for developing reading skills and vocabulary. It is also highly motivating for students to choose their own book on a subject they are interested in. With this in mind, she has produced books on a variety of popular factual subjects such as Hollywood, San Francisco, Deserts and Chocolate (Oxford Bookworms Library Factfiles).

Reviews

[Chica Invisible · Rating 3 out of 5]

He decidido empezar a leer en inglés y quiero empezar por estos para saber más o menos cual es mi nivel, se ve que me equivoqué al escoger esta edición porque cuando la vi resulta que era en plan cómic, que me parece muy bien y en 5 min me lo había leído pero quería la edición normal de toda la vida. Lo bueno que he sacado de esto es que por lo menos el nivel básico lo tengo jajaja. Buen libro y ahora a por el nivel 1. 👍

[Khánh Thư · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rút kinh nghiệm lần sau có mua sách trên mạng thì chú ý size và số trang của sách :)))
Thật cũng không phải kiểu treo đầu dê bán thịt chó, mà chỉ tại kỳ vọng của mình quá cao nên hơi bị hụt hẫng. Mặc dù vậy thì kỳ vọng đây là cuốn truyện chữ là một điều hết sức chính đáng, ai dè lại là một comic book các bạn ạ. Cũng hơi sốc văn hoá nhưng thôi về mặt thông tin và mục đích của bộ Oxford Bookworm này thì quyển King Arthur khá xuất sắc.
Truyện bắt đầu từ giấc mơ của Merlin, và kết thúc là việc trả kiếm và vua Arthur đi cùng với Merlin. Truyện chỉ tập trung vào việc vua Arthur bị cắm sừng và Mordred cướp ngôi. Có nhắc một tí tới Hội Bàn Tròn, còn người được mệnh danh là "nữ thần hồ" thì chỉ nhắc đến qua một cánh tay trao kiếm và nhận kiếm.
Về mặt mục đích là luyện tiếng Anh thì quyển này đã hoàn thành nhiệm vụ, cuối sách còn có phần tổng hợp từ vựng và một số bài tập để luyện. Nhưng mình vẫn mong đọc nhiều hơn về Hội Bàn Tròn và Nữ thần hồ huhu.

[Ziwei Cheng · Rating 5 out of 5]

Once upon a time, there is a magician called Merlin who had a dream. The dream is about a wonderful king named Arthur. Merlin made a magic stone and he put a sword there. And only Arthur could pull out the sword. When he put out the sword and Arthur became a king successfully. During this whole time Merlin always helped him. One day he met a girl named Guinevere, Arthur ignored Merlin’s warning and married her. But, Merlin found out he was going to lose his magic. So, Merlin gave Arthur a magic sward and told him not to break the sward, otherwise, Arthur would be nothing. Three weeks later, Arthur married Guinevere. Later, Arthur started a competition (knights) and had a new friend called Lancelot. They became best friends. Meanwhile, Guinevere and Lancelot always rode together.
Before this happened, Merlin warned Arthur of two bad people named Morgan and Mordred. These two evil guys told Arthur that his queen and Lancelot fell in love. Arthur took their words as true and became very sad. So, he did not look after his country. Then, the whole country became in a mess and then a disaster happened. The worst thing was that Morgan and Mordred suggested Arthur to fight with Lancelot. During this time they took away the country from Arthur. However, it was too late for Arthur to find out this. So, he connected with Lancelot to fight so as to win his country back again. However, Mordred betrayed Arthur and killed all his knights, friends and soldiers and cut off his sward, and hurt Arthur. When he came and brought his knights, Lancelot killed Mordred. Also, Arthur is going to die. The last word he left to Lancelot is to take his sword and throw it away. This time Merlin came out and brought away Arthur.

This is a graphic novel, the writer uses the comic book style to create the story and draw the picture in a unique way. Basically, people’s eyes are empty inside. Only few pictures show people’s fears. In addition, the main characters’ eyes were described and the rest of characters were basically drawn with no empty eyes there.

Basically, dark color is used as background color in the story. It means scare and darkness. The whole story was very dark but interesting. We never know what happened in next minutes. Merlin always helped Arthur become a king, but one day Arthur thought he could handle everything without showing his gratitude to Merlin. After he left Merlin, Arthur made a lot of mistakes. He even almost lost his country. He didn’t trust his wife and his best friends. He started trusting enemies. He was not faithful and thankful for his helper and friends. This is the main reason why he got killed.

[Kiyu Nishiki · Rating 5 out of 5]

（1）
Book title：King Arthur
Publisher：OXFORD
Book level：1
2： It took me （80）minutes to read

3〔Seven words〕
・ magician
・dream
・sword
・Arthur
・young
・King
・strong


4（about passage. like or don't like）
a...The scene everyone were fighting. （I don't like）
b...I can't understand why everyone want to be the strongest.

5 （Explain about book）
I've heard the name "Arthur". But I didn't know what he did and, his story. So I chose this book.
A magician Merlin made a magic stone and put a sword to find true king because only true king can pull the sword. Only one boy who pull it was Arthur. He became new king. He met a knights "Lancelot" .
One day Arthur's wife "Guinevere" and Lancelot fell in love. Arthur became angry and told Lancelot to leave him. However that incident was Morgan and Mordred's strategy. Finally Arthur was killed Mordred.
I thought it's very complicated story.

[Queen Abeer · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was reading the story with my little sister, she was so excited about it =)) I liked this book and I think I'm getting the whole series, it really helped me to discover how much she can understand!

[Álvaro · Rating 3 out of 5]

Has to be said that my score is like an overall mark, but it's aimed for people learning English and for this target it's good, let's say 4/5 stars.

[John Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you are not familiar with the story of King Arthur, you can get the overview immediately.

[Abdullah Alahmad]

r

[Luis Perez · Rating 4 out of 5]

The actual book lasts only 24 pages, which is quite a large amount of reading lost even tho it’s a starter book.
The illustrations are nice and have a that old comic feel to them.

[berry · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bastante bien para empezar a leer porque es simple y cuenta la historia con un lenguaje que va perfectamente si estás empezando a leer en inglés.

[Duc]

read

[Linh Tran · Rating 4 out of 5]

I haven't read this book in my mother tongue before. So It was good to read it in easy English. I find the ending a bit sad.

[Yahya Hamza · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really glad to know of such books wich really can help improving one's English and reading skill.