This article presents results of a literature-response study conducted with at-risk middle school students of Latino, African American, and Caucasian backgrounds. The study was guided by an assumption of students' ability to read and coherently assimilate elements of "The House on Mango Street," by Sandra Cisneros (1984). Although centered in research and theory related to literary reading and aesthetics, the power of the work is based in a political belief that students in "at-risk" schools need literacy experiences that ennoble their backgrounds and abilities. Methods through which students aesthetically engaged the novel are described, and suggestions for practitioners are offered.