Available Formats
Paperback, Abridged edition
Published: 19th October 2021
Paperback, Abridged edition
Published: 25th March 2025
Penguin Readers Level 4: Clouds Over California (ELT Graded Reader): Abridged Edition
By (Author) Karyn Parsons
Penguin Random House Children's UK
Penguin Books Ltd
25th March 2025
27th February 2025
Abridged edition
United Kingdom
Young Adult
Non Fiction
Childrens / Teenage fiction: Historical fiction
Childrens / Teenage fiction: Family and home stories
Childrens / Teenage personal and social topics: Racism and anti-racism
428.64
Paperback
80
Width 129mm, Height 198mm, Spine 7mm
78g
Penguin Readers is an ELT graded reading series, designed for teenagers and young adults learning English as a foreign language. With carefully adapted text, new illustrations, language practise activities and additional online resources, the Penguin Readers series introduces language learners to bestselling authors and compelling content. Titles include popular classics, exciting contemporary fiction, and thought-provoking non-fiction. Clouds Over California, a Level 4 Reader, is A2+ in the CEFR framework. The text is made up of sentences with up to three clauses, introducing more complex uses of present perfect simple, passives, phrasal verbs and simple relative clauses. It is well supported by illustrations, which appear regularly. Clouds over California is a story about an eleven-year-old girl called Stevie, and the changes that happen in her life when her older cousin comes to stay. It is also about life in the 1970s and important events that changed things in the United States of America for women and Black people.
Karyn Parsons is perhaps best known for her role as Will Smith's ditsy cousin Hilary Banks on NBC's The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. After leaving acting behind, Karyn went on to found and produce Sweet Blackberry, an award-winning series of children's animated films, to share stories about unsung black heroes in history, featuring narration from stars such as Alfre Woodard, Queen Latifah and Chris Rock. The serie has been screened on HBO and Netflix, and is enjoyed by schools and libraries across the USA. How High The Moon is Karyn's self-authored debut middle grade novel. She lives and works in New York.