Eighteen short stories by such famous authors as Chopin, O. Henry, Tolstoy, Conan Doyle, de Maupassant, Achebe, and Lim. The stories are arranged by literary elements: characters and conflicts, plot, irony, and so forth. Two alternative tables of contents are provided: one geographical and one by intent/tone . A sample lesson at the beginning of the text introduces reading skills, note-taking skills, and commonly used literary terms (carefully defined with the developing reader in mind). The sample lesson also uses a very short story ("Ripe Figs," by Kate Chopin) to illustrate the book's pedagogy (see next point). Each story includes the following features: (1) pre-reading contextual vocabulary exercises , (2) pre-reading word attack exercises, (3) pre-reading questions , (4) biographical headnote , (5) journal entry worksheet asking students to identify the key elements of the story, such as main and supporting characters, setting, plot, and symbols, (6) follow-up questions , which test how well students have understood the story, (7) discussion questions , and (8) writing prompts for further writing. A full glossary of literary terms related to the short story is provided at the end of the text.