抄録
For the sake of the Japanese learners of English who love reading, this paper introduces three different series of readers: Garnet Oracle Readers, Summertown Readers, and National Geographic's Global Issues. Garnet Oracle and Summertown are both so-called graded readers. The former are for high school and university students who study English as a foreign or second language while the latter are written for businesspeople who have to learn English as a lingua franca. Both are, however, original fictional stories, some of which are quite enjoyable and really worth reading. Peter Viney, Garnet's main author, can write a variety of genres: for example, Space Romance is a romantic sci-fi story in an impressive setting; A Tidy Ghost is a witty ghost story whose terror dramatically changes into sheer humor at the ending; but, above all, his Underground is highly recommended because of the unforgettable character Tommy, a mute elderly man who lives in the London underground, saving the protagonist in big trouble. Summertown's counterpart must be James Schofield. Although his amateurish suspense stories tend to be rather boring, his humorous stories such as Room Service and Double Trouble are readable with a lot of laughter.
National Geographic's Global Issues may seem to be no comparison with these interesting stories since they are serious nonfiction pamphlets edited for American high school students. Despite the foreign language, Japanese students can also appreciate the discussed, grave environmental problems of our planet Earth where the population explosion has been causing disastrous situations. In a sense, fact is truly stranger than fiction. So, which is more interesting, fiction or nonfiction? I hope you read the three series and decide for yourself.
