The article regards the issue of a school textbook considered as a book for the new types of reading comprehension and interpretation against the modern digital environment. The issue proves relevant due to textbook impacting the educational process as well its compliance with the updated literacy standards. The latter claim textbook to have a nonlinear structure, to present the data in a multimodal way as well to be quite informative. It appears promising to consider textbook as a global polycode text, thus, there are two reasons for that. Firstly, textbook structure comes in the form of a multi-level semiotic space, in which each of the elements is rich in information, and, therefore, significant. Secondly, textbook interpretation urges some specific activity beyond the scope of operating with a language sign which involves data search, selection, comparison and comprehension. Textbook interpretation is mostly nonlinear which implies different strategies and modes of information processing. It is an integral skill in the framework of educational activities and requires students’ psychophysical readiness. The study revealed textbook interpretation hardly comes close to traditional text reading. It is efficient in different grades of primary schools due to mastering skills of operating and decoding links formed while signs and symbols are interrelated. The skills considered are formed non-linearly, and their state reflects the readiness of students of a particular class to carry out sign-symbolic activities, guided by the goals and objectives of educational activities. The author emphasizes a gap in academic sources tackling this issue, which contributes to theoretical and practical relevance of the study.

reading a textbook, textbook on Russian language, polycode texts