The higher standards expected today call for literacy instruction that focuses on the close reading of complex texts. In this book, twenty literary text passages are organized around high-interest topics connected to the curriculum and to key comprehension skills. Each reading is specially formatted to provide practice with text marking—a proven, powerful tool for building comprehension skills, such as describing characters, settings, key events and details, and story structure; identifying points of view; determining the meaning of key vocabulary and figurative language; and making inferences.