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.