The authors have worked with teachers across the country as they have exposed social studies students to primary source texts only to find consistent challenges with: (1) Academic language gaps (lack of content knowledge to contextualize or interpret texts); (2) Comprehension gaps (inability to accurately derive meaning from text); (3) Inaccurate use of evidence (failure to inference or overreliance on literal meaning); and (4) No motivation to read (reluctant and uninterested readers). In this article, the authors identify ways to tap into informational texts that are readable, engaging, inviting, and meet the appropriate level of complexity for each grade band. They describe the importance of reading complex text and what it looks like in a social studies classroom, utilizing close reading and other techniques aligned to the College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Framework and the Common Core State Standards. They focus in particular on four strategies that promote the vision of complex text integration defined in the crossover of the Common Core State Standards and the C3 Framework. They describe the following different ways to use informational text to support inquiry: (1) visual inventory; (2) "Chunking"--using short texts; (3) close reading; and (4) exploration of multiple sources. They use these applications to explain steps toward increasing text complexity. Each of these texts supports the exploration of compelling questions, developed by novice social studies learners.