English books for B1 learners

Books for readers at B1 and a little above. These are the easiest classics in our library: plain storytelling, everyday vocabulary and few long descriptions. The level is given for reading with tap-to-translate; without any help these books read about a step harder.

How these books compare

The shortest is Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland: 26,689 words, about 3 hours of reading. The easiest vocabulary is in Black Beauty: the 2,000 most common English words cover 89.6% of its text. The most rare words are in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, where the same 2,000 words cover 86.6%.

Book	Level	Words	Reading time	Covered by 2,000 common words
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz	B1	39,394	≈ 4 h	88.5%
Black Beauty	B1	60,025	≈ 7 h	89.6%
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland	B1	26,689	≈ 3 h	88.9%
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes	B1–B2	105,212	≈ 12 h	86.6%
The Secret Garden	B1–B2	81,241	≈ 9 h	86.8%