The analysis of story recall, a device used widely in reading research to gauge comprehension, typically involves a process of mapping recall against the original story. The process is based on the assumption that subjects are aiming for verbatim recall. To test the validity of this assumption, an analysis was conducted of 20 narrative retellings, 10 for each of two stories, presented by a sample of sixth grade students. The analysis supported the theory that a retelling of a story is not an attempt at verbatim recall, but rather an attempt to communicate an understanding of a story by selecting, organizing, and emphasizing certain events from that story while ignoring others. The findings suggest that mapping story recall against the original story may be an inappropriate analytic strategy for reading researchers. (FL)