Books with author Karen Donnelly

I had been given a simple but enormous task. This was the role for which I had spent my whole life preparing. After encountering John the Baptist, Jesus’s work begins. He will meet many people; some will help him, many will need his help, and some will become his enemies. Jesus challenges the way people live, the way they relate to God, and the way Jewish law is enforced. Although he is a man of peace, he is not afraid to challenge authority, no matter where this might lead. What exactly are Jesus’s responsibilities as God’s son? How will he lead people towards a new relationship with God? How much can a man achieve in one short lifetime? How much more can he achieve by his death? Real Reads are retellings of the classics of world literature, each fitted into a 64-page book. Our books make classic stories, dramas and histories available to young readers as a bridge to the full texts, to reluctant readers as a gentle introduction to a world of wonderful literature, to language students wanting access to other cultures, and to adult readers who are unlikely ever to read the original versions, or simply don’t have time to!

Can you spare the time to listen to my account? I should like to tell the whole story, just once before I die. Mary is a young woman living a simple life in Nazareth, when an angel’s visit changes her life forever. She has been chosen by God to bear him a son. She alone amongst women has been chosen to bear the agony and the joy. From the moment of his birth, she knows that Jesus’s life will be like no other: she has been warned of the pain that lies ahead. When Jesus begins his work, how will she react to her increasing awareness of the dangers facing her son? When Mary experiences anguish that no mother should ever experience, is her faith strong enough to sustain her? Might there be grounds for joy in the midst of such brutality? Real Reads are retellings of the classics of world literature, each fitted into a 64-page book. Our books make classic stories, dramas and histories available to young readers as a bridge to the full texts, to reluctant readers as a gentle introduction to a world of wonderful literature, to language students wanting access to other cultures, and to adult readers who are unlikely ever to read the original versions, or simply don’t have time to!

My darkness lifted, never to return. This man was truly the light of the world. Mary’s childhood in Magdala leaves her with emotional scars she fears will never heal – until she meets Jesus. Recognising the importance of Jesus’s work, she decides to do all that she can to support him, but what good can a woman do in a man’s world? Will Mary ever be accepted by Jesus’s other disciples? What will she learn from the miracles she witnesses and from her many conversations with the Son of God? To Mary the message seems simple, so why can’t others believe? After witnessing Jesus’s agonising death, Mary is the first to see the empty tomb, the first to see the risen Christ. What role can she play in spreading the news about Jesus after his death? Real Reads are retellings of the classics of world literature, each fitted into a 64-page book. Our books make classic stories, dramas and histories available to young readers as a bridge to the full texts, to reluctant readers as a gentle introduction to a world of wonderful literature, to language students wanting access to other cultures, and to adult readers who are unlikely ever to read the original versions, or simply don’t have time to!

Catching fish. That’s what I was doing on the day that changed my life for ever. Although Simon has no idea why Jesus is beckoning to him from the beach, he agrees to leave his nets and follow him. A robust, enthusiastic fisherman, Simon makes more mistakes and asks more questions than the other disciples. Why then, he wonders, does Jesus call him Peter, which means ‘rock’? When Jesus is arrested everybody except Simon Peter flees, but is he brave enough to stand by Jesus until the end? After Jesus’s death, how will Simon Peter spread Jesus’s teachings? Will he make the right decisions? Can he calm the rivalries developing among Jesus’s followers? Is he brave enough to die for his beliefs? Real Reads are retellings of the classics of world literature, each fitted into a 64-page book. Our books make classic stories, dramas and histories available to young readers as a bridge to the full texts, to reluctant readers as a gentle introduction to a world of wonderful literature, to language students wanting access to other cultures, and to adult readers who are unlikely ever to read the original versions, or simply don’t have time to!