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