A popular response among high school teachers and leaders facing students reading far below grade level, the authors claim, is to adopt back-to-basics packaged programs that focus on discrete skills with little attention to critical reading and writing. The authors express concern that reliance on such programs keeps older struggling readers from engaging in reading for meaningful purposes. A focus on a list of poorly-defined "basics" denies high school students the chance to use their developing critical thinking skills and to access sophisticated world knowledge. Ivey and Fisher provide four strategies for connecting inexperienced teen readers to higher-level thinking and to concept knowledge appropriate to their chronological age.