Playing with Fire: Stories from the Pacific Rim

by Jennifer Bassett (Retold by)

He smiled, showing teeth yellow from cigarette smoke. He looked at his desk diary, then at her papers again. 'Mmm... a hundred pesos a month. Why, that's one thousand two hundred pesos a year. Surely, you can afford to buy me a forty-peso dinner!' How can Marina say no? How can she refuse the Chief's next request? He is an evil man, but she needs her promotion...

These World Stories, from Tonga, the Philippines, Papua New Guinea, and New Zealand, are by Epeli Hau'ofa, Denise Whittaker, F. Sionil José, David A. Kulu, and Graeme Lay.

80 pages, Paperback

First published February 26, 2009

About the author

Jennifer Bassett has been a teacher, teacher trainer, editor, and materials writer, and has taught in England, Greece, Spain, and Portugal. She is the Series Editor of the Oxford Bookworms Library, and has written more than twenty original and retold stories for the series, including The Phantom of the Opera, One-Way Ticket, The President's Murderer, and William Shakespeare. Two of her adaptations, Rabbit-Proof Fence and Love Among the Haystacks, have won Language Learner Literature Awards, and three of her other titles have been finalists for the Awards. She has created a new sub-series called Bookworms World Stories, which are collections of short stories written in English from around the world. She has also written original stories for the English Today Readers and Storylines series. Jennifer is series co-adviser, with H.G. Widdowson, of the Oxford Bookworms Collection, volumes of unadapted short stories for advanced learners.

Reviews

[Jess Estrada · Rating 3 out of 5]

The stories are more on the depressing side and they are open ended. I had to keep in mind this book was for my ESL students and keeping a variety of stories and stories that need to be discussed are crucial when we want students to practice English.

The downside is that the stories come from different parts of the world so some words like "carrycot" need to be twice explained.

[Madina Ismayilova · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bəzi hissələr çox uzadılmışdı amma bu insanların həyat hekayələri, ənənələri və düşüncələri haqqında oxumaq çox maraqlı idi

[Amina · Rating 1 out of 5]

Stories from the Pacific rim . this how I saw the tittle written on the book cover
I felt so exited and bought it unthinkably .
the truth after I read this book is I got nothing like I expected .

[Bee · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved the book, and every story in it was in its way special and simple.
I loved that it was in some how about traditions and the simplicity of its people.

[Jose Pablo]

i think that the stories from the pacific rim is very important, because with

[Andre · Rating 2 out of 5]

I don't like this book because the stories in the book just teach us how to give up your dignity for some physical stuff.

[Bñøøłä Cøøľ]

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