I wrote a graded reader for English language learners—a short novel that students can read to improve their 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. According to the test I did on lextutor.ca, over 86% of the words in the book are within the top 1,000 most frequently used words in English. It’s appropriate for learners at the A1 level on the CEFR scale. It is written primarily in the present tense, with some use of past and future tenses.

Synopsis:

Julia is 29 years old, and her mother thinks she needs to get married soon. But Julia doesn’t want to get married now, and she doesn’t even have a boyfriend. When she learns that her friend Brian has the same problem, they decide to tell their families that they are dating. It seems like a good idea…or is it?

It’s available for purchase here on Amazon.

Preview the first chapter here.

I created a short teacher’s guide to accompany the book, available for download on Teachers Pay Teachers.

Teacher Testimonial

“I have bought several copies of My Fake Boyfriend to use in my adult ELL classes, and it has been a *huge* hit across the board where other leveled readers have fallen flat. Every one of my adult students has given the book high praise and has been very happy to read an easy book that has an interesting story.”

– Nicole M., adult ELL teacher in Columbus, Indiana