Any recommendation on reading exercise materials like Horrible Histories?

I purchased the Horrible Histories for students to improve their reading speed and overall understanding of the English language.

This series of books are funny, witty, and full of historical facts, however, this turns out to be not so effective as the students can't cope with the size of vocabulary involved in the books.

I am hoping to find an alternative that is less vocabulary-demanding and equally interesting.

Could anyone please offer some recommendations?

doletotodole said:

This series of books are funny, witty, and full of historical facts. However, this turns out to be not so effective as the students can't cope with the size of vocabulary involved in the books.

Click to expand...

How old are your students?

They are non-native speakers, neither am I. They are between 16-18.

doletotodole said:

They are non-native speakers [STRIKE], neither[/STRIKE] and so am I. They are between 16 and 18.

Click to expand...

Note my corrections above. If you'd said "They are not native speakers" (negative statement), you could have followed it with "and neither am I". However, "They are non-native speakers" is a positive statement, not a negative statement, so it needs to be followed by "and so am I".

"16-18" means "16 to 18". You can't be between one number to another; you can be between one number and another. Having said that, the only number between 16 and 18 is 17 so, technically, you're saying they're all 17. You could say "They're aged from sixteen to eighteen inclusive".

Have you looked at graded readers, which use a reduced vocab?

Unfortunately for you, doletotodole, given your location, this is probably of no use to you, but other teachers interested in these answers and based in the UK, USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, will find that large bookshops have a section labelled Young Adult, which includes material for students in this age-range (and beyond).

Further to Rover's suggestion, both Project Gutenberg and Internet Archive Books have plenty of fiction for young adults. That category tends to use rather basic vocabulary.

All right, sir. I really appreciate your corrections. I now realise how difficult it is to write in proper English, let alone being an English teacher.

doletotodole said:

All right. [STRIKE]sir.[/STRIKE] I really appreciate your corrections. I now realise how difficult it is to write in proper English, let alone [STRIKE]being[/STRIKE] be an English teacher.

Click to expand...

See above. Please don't refer to users here as "sir". Not only is it overly formal, but it suggests you assume we are all male. We are not.

Yes, I got it.