Skill Sharpeners Reading, Grade 6 provides 12 motivating fiction and nonfiction stories. For example: Fiction Stories: "Hercules and the Many-Headed Hydra", "A Clever Jester Fools a King", "The Sausage", Nonfiction Stories: "The Terra Cotta Warriors: An Army of Clay", "Animal Partnerships", "Deborah Sampson, Revolutionary Soldier". Activity pages include: comprehension questions, a vocabulary exercise for every story. Other skills addressed include the following: critical thinking, interpreting graphic information, using a dictionary, summarizing. Parents have awonderful opportunity to support what happens in the classroom, inspiring their child's desire to learn. Skill Sharpeners Reading series is perfect for practice at home. The content is written by teachers and addresses the five essential components of reading instruction as identified in the No Child Left Behind Act. The five essential components of reading instruction addressed are: Phonemic Awareness, Phonics, Vocabulary, Comprehension, Fluency. Skill Sharpeners Reading contains both fiction and nonfiction stories. The stories at each grade level get progressively more difficult, providing challenge as the child gains in reading skills over a period of time. Parents can purchase this series and know that their child is getting reading practice that is grade appropriate.