Everyone in Hamelin was happy until the rats came. One day, a man went to see the mayor. "I can make the rats leave Hamelin, " he said.

Ladybird Readers is a graded reading series of traditional tales, popular characters, modern stories, and non-fiction, written for young learners of English as a foreign or second language. Beautifully illustrated and carefully written, the series combines the best of Ladybird content with the structured language progression that will help children develop their reading, writing, speaking, listening and critical thinking skills. The four levels of Readers and Activity Books follow the CEFR framework and include language activities that provide preparation for the Cambridge English: Young Learners (YLE) Starters, Movers and Flyers exams.

The Pied Piper of Hamelin, a Level 4 Reader, is A2 in the CEFR framework and supports YLE Flyers exams. The longer text is made up of sentences with up to three clauses, more complex past and future tense structures, modal verbs and a wider variety of conjunctions.