Main problem: The article examines the issues concerning teaching reading skills to the middle school students according to the updated program. Purpose: The article analyses the course book “Excel” for 7 th grade students on teaching reading skills. Methods: The criteria of analyzing the course book contain the forms of text presentation, types and situations modeled by the text, compliance with the level of English proficiency, age of students, information content, and accessibility. It also includes assessment ofcourse book texts for the development of reading for general understanding of information (skimming), for identifying details (scanning) and reading with full comprehension, as well as for the different types of tasks for reading. Results and their significance: The texts in the course book correspond to the age characteristics of adolescents, the level of English language proficiency (A2) and are developed according to the standard curriculum.The most popular forms of text presentation are popular science texts and information about public events. The situations in the texts are dominated by educational, most of all the mixed type of text prevailed. There is a balance for the types of tasks developing reading for general understanding and reading for identifying details which leads to the development of functional reading literacy. The types of reading tasks used are quite diverse and contribute the development of communicative skills (pair work, group work, etc.). The misbalance of tasks on developing low order and high order thinking skills can be solved through adding some tasks developing HOTS.