Students in a teaching methods course evaluated a recently published basal reader to see if it conformed to guidelines for the efficacy of such materials already established by the class. A story selection was read to identify (1) essential background information, (2) text features that might cause comprehension problems (subject matter for comprehension instruction), and (3) purpose-setting questions. Using what had been discussed in the course about story grammar, the students composed five brief, clearly stated questions that could be mimeographed for use by children as they did their reading. Other questions that might be asked were decided during the post- reading discussion. The students concluded in examining the teacher's manual that accompanied the reader that the section called "Introducing Vocabulary" offered insufficient help and that the section entitled "Independent Writing Activities" should be skipped entirely. The class elected to use most of the prereading time on new vocabulary. The consensus was that most of the guidelines in the manual did not reflect course recommendations, and that much of the criticism leveled at basal readers is justified. (NKA)