The goal of reading instruction in elementary school is to create an active reader, equipped with reliable reading skills, who will be ready to use books in further studies and self-education. Modern children have changed significantly since the time when the existing public education system in Russia was originally designed. In the first place, the social situation of child development is different. Earlier, children used to get information about the world, society, man, and nature primarily from school classes. Now the mass media have gained a crucial influence in shaping the young generation’s outlook. A broader point of view and greater erudition are undoubtedly the modern child’s winning points. However, growing amounts of information may have a negative influence on the child’s personality development. Incoming information is often confusing, excessive, and may not conform to the child’s age and psychological characteristics. TV, movies, and the Internet are obviously pushing reading further away from children’s lives. Books, especially classics, are far from being a priority of theirs. As a result, they may develop learning problems caused by poor text analysis in various genres, undeveloped inner plans of action, as well as, difficulty with logical thinking and imagination. Just like during past national, massive literacy campaigns, the mission of the contemporary school is unfortunately put forth as “teaching the child to read”-purposefully, consciously, and creatively.