Recent research suggests that an understanding of a simple children's story can demand sophisticated knowledge of concepts, social life, and literary forms. A well-written story for beginning readers will relate goal-directed event sequences in a coherent and relatively complete form, but understanding the story involves processes extending beyond the text as given. It draws on readers' prior knowledge of story structures, real world creatures, story world characters, and rhetorical devices. No simple prescription can be made for integrating stories and reading. But a consideration of the impact of cultural variation on reading comprehension, problems in text selection and comprehension instruction, and the relation of story reading to other kinds of reading suggests general guidelines to teaching and research: (1) materials should be accommodated to the needs of children from diverse backgrounds; (2) children need to read meaningful stories as soon as they are able; (3) being read to also improves reading comprehension; (4) reading and responding to literature exercises reading comprehension skills; (5) simplification of stories is not simple and is often counter-productive; and (6) children can be taught to predict and to ask questions. (HOD)