Includes bibliographical references and index.

Text complexity is the new black: -- Text complexity defined -- Revisiting how we match readers and texts -- Text complexity and the common core state standards -- The case for struggle -- Conclusion -- Quantitative measures of text complexity: -- Word-level analysis -- Sentence-level analysis --Conventional readability formulas -- Readability formulas that also measure readers -- Measuring coreference and cohesion -- Cautions and criticism of readability formulas -- Readability for early readers -- Conclusion -- Qualitative measures of text complexity: -- Considerate texts -- But not all texts are considerate -- Levels of meaning and purpose -- Structure -- Language conventionality and clarity -- Knowledge demands -- Returning to the hunger games, qualitatively -- Cautions and criticisms of qualitative analysis of text complexity -- Conclusion -- Matching readers to texts and tasks: -- Exploring the reader -- Exploring the task -- Exploring the question -- Shifting expectations -- Cautions and criticisms of matching readers with texts and tasks -- Conclusion -- A close reading of complex texts: Close reading -- Close reading up close in fourth grade : "post-it-notes" -- Close reading up close in ninth grade : "The road not taken" -- Conclusion.