The Word Stories Series - Book 9

Vocabulary that arrives through stories - not word lists.

The Word Stories Series teaches the advanced vocabulary children need for the 11+ exam the way words are actually learned and remembered: inside a story, in a moment, carried by a character. Across ten books, children meet 300 carefully chosen words - the exact register that CEM and GL comprehension papers favour - without ever sitting down to memorise a list.

Each book contains five original short stories that double as full reading-comprehension passages, followed by complete 11+ style assessments: glossary, eight comprehension questions with mark schemes, synonym and antonym matching, CEM-style cloze, and a "use it yourself" writing task. Answers are included for every exercise, so a parent can support without needing to be an expert.

Written by Dr. J. G. Knight, drawing on years in education, the series is built on a simple, evidence-backed idea: children remember words they have met, not words they have studied. Warm enough to read aloud together, rigorous enough to prepare for the real thing.

• 300 exam-level words across ten themed books, each taught in context


• 50 original stories, written in the literary register of real CEM & GL passages


• Full assessments with answers - comprehension, synonym/antonym, cloze and writing tasks


• For ages 9-11, preparing for 11+ (CEM and GL formats)

Book 9: The Time Words

Time vocabulary runs through CEM passages - "ephemeral beauty", "an imminent deadline" - and it is philosophically rich territory children find genuinely moving when it's framed well. Through gentle, reflective stories, children meet ephemeral, transient, fleeting, enduring, imminent, perpetual, timeless and more.

Each story is followed by a full 11+ style assessment: glossary, eight comprehension questions with marks, synonym and antonym matching, CEM-style cloze, and a writing task. Answers included.

Theme: Change, impermanence and moments. Quietly teaches: patience - gratitude, and savouring the present.

The Word Stories Series by Dr. J. G. Knight - 11+ vocabulary through stories, for CEM & GL, ages 9-11.