My book is here!

It’s a graded reader for English language learners—a short novel for students to read to provide them with compelling, comprehensible input in English. You can use it as a whole-class novel, a read-aloud, or as an option to offer students during independent reading time.

The book is aimed at lower-level English learners. It contains only about 350 headwords and focuses on high-frequency language. It’s appropriate for learners at about the A1 level on the CEFR scale.

It’s available for purchase on Amazon.

I decided to write this book because I thought there was a need for more books that ESL students can easily read. Although there are already many graded readers, in my opinion, there are not enough books aimed at lower-level students. There are also relatively few books written in American English (most graded readers are written in British English). I first started writing this book about two years ago when I was in need of more materials for my students. My students enjoyed the story, so I continued working on it and using it with more classes.

The end result is a fun, light-hearted romantic comedy story. The main character, Julia, is a 29-year-old woman whose mother is pressuring her to get married soon. But Julia doesn’t want to get married now, and she doesn’t even have a boyfriend. When she finds out that her friend Brian has the same problem with his family, the two of them decide to tell their families that they are dating each other. It seems like a great idea. But things get a little more complicated when they need to meet each other’s families. And then Julia starts to wonder if maybe she wants Brian to be more than just her fake boyfriend.

You can preview the first chapter of the book here. I also created a teacher’s guide to accompany the book, available for download on Teachers Pay Teachers.