I need your help regarding two issues, feel free to share your thoughts on either one

1) I �m looking for a ESL reader for young learners (8 year-olds, beginners). I �ve been browsing the internet but all I �ve found so far are readers of movies turned into books, which I �m not a fan of. I �d like my students to read an original work of fiction. I �m looking for something fun and enganging with a big pay-off in terms of post-reading activities/projects. 

I �ve seen some books I liked and I thought were amazing but they were too long or a bit ahead of the level I �m teaching ("Amelia Bedelia" series, "Judy Moody" series, "Alien in my pocket" series).

2) In the few weeks I �ve been teaching my students, I learned they really love music, signing and dancing. So I �m planning on putting their skills to use for our "Open Day" class towards the end of the year (parents attend a class with their children). I wanted to do a short musical, or even create a musical using snippets of hit songs (telling a story through songs, a la "Across the Universe" but not so ambitious of course) but I �d like to know if anyone has ever done anything similar before or if you ever came across something like this on the web so I can take a look at it. I think it would be super difficult to start something like this from scratch, I �d like to have some sort of basic outline for the play.

I know I �m being too picky. but if anyone has any ideas, do share!

THANKS! 

2) I �ve done a play in a summer drama camp with teens. I tried to incorporate some songs from famous American musicals (not modern though) Have a look here, maybe you can adapt it for your situation.

P.S. just noticed some youtube links in the worksheet are not working so I am going to update the document in a moment and I hope it�ll be available soon. But if you already downloaded it, you can try looking for a working video on youtube by simply typing in the name of the song or the first line...