North American short stories enhance students' reading skills, language learning, and enjoyment of literature.

Discovering Fiction, Second Edition, Student's Book 2 presents stories with universal appeal to engage students and make them think. Among the authors included are Nathaniel Hawthorne, Kate Chopin, Langston Hughes, Ernest Hemingway, and Shirley Jackson. Pre-reading and post-reading activities arouse students' interest, check their comprehension, increase their knowledge of grammar and vocabulary, and provide thought-provoking discussion and writing assignments. Literary term explanations enhance students' appreciation of literature. In addition, WebQuests take students beyond the reading to expand their knowledge of the topic while building Internet reading skills.