They often have chapters and cannot be read in one day. There frequently are subplots as well as plots.
Characters develop, there is more detail and figurative language is used.
So it is more difficult to summarize the more complicated story. In nonfiction texts, concepts with subordinate and coordinate structures are presented in complex and compound sentences. The conceptual content of texts, and children s background knowledge in relation to that content, starts to become important at this stage. In third grade, the distinction between texts children read independently or with a partner and those that adults read to them is no longer a primary consideration with respect to the comprehension component of the standard. Now, the levels of complexity do not always differ, so our expectations for comprehension are generally the same for independent reading and being read to.