A three-year-old boy falls 18 feet into a gorilla cage and is saved by a mother -- a mother gorilla, that is! A waitress finds a lottery ticket for a tip, instead of cash. And she wins six million dollars! Very Easy True Stories, by Sandra Heyer, presents 14 very low-level stories of high-level interest -- humorous, poignant, astounding -- and all true! Selected from newspapers and magazines, and adapted for the beginning student, the stories are told as simply as possible -- exclusively in the present tense. First, students see a series of captioned pictures so the meaning is clear. Then, students read the story in text form for real reading practice. Finally, students do exercises following each story to develop very basic reading skills as well as build pronunciation, spelling, and vocabulary proficiency. Very Easy True Stories is an ideal first text for students with little or no experience with English.