Skilled reading involves two main components: word reading and text comprehension. In this article, I focus on three skills that have been shown to support the latter: integration and inference, comprehension monitoring, and knowledge and use of story structure. Research has shown that children with unexpectedly poor reading comprehension have difficulties with each of these text processing skills and that each skill contributes to development in reading comprehension during middle childhood. I conclude with some reflections on the possible wider consequences of poor reading comprehension and implications for teaching.