While the purpose of the book is to increase a student's reading and writing skills, the stories and the American context in which they were written are so interesting that everyone should enjoy reading AmericanShort Stories. Rich characters, clear plots and conflicts, and surprising res-olutions make these stories entertaining to all readers, even those with lim-ited English-language skills. As students are talking, reading, and writing about the interesting Amer-ican topics central to these stories, they will be practicing troublesome gram-matical structures and learning to write accurately.