Why do we want children to read? Do we want them to engage with texts in personal ways so that they may begin to react and develop a sense of who they are in relation to these issues or do we want to assure that they can recall the events, characters, and setting of a story? Are comprehension strategies being used for their own sake or are they being used as a tool for deeper thinking? In my research, developed in the US, I follow one teacher’s work with a group of children as they discuss three different books. Discourse analysis, microethnography, shows how the teacher uses her power to direct the authority for knowledge away from the student’s reaction to texts and toward the literal messages in the text. When student’s offer personal reactions, the teacher redirects attention to the text, labels contributions with literary jargon, or asks students to retell the story in a notebook. Each of these actions diminishes the student’s opportunity to react to the social justice issues addressed in the texts. Mikhail Bahktin’s construct of “addressivity” and answerability are used to understand how the teacher’s perception of her students drives her instructional choices.