Young adolescents need and want more than a diet of worksheets and rote skills that asks them to think little and talk less. This book presents an instructional approach that mixes critique and pleasure, allowing middle-level students to read literature they enjoy while they develop critical awareness and address issues of social justice. Following a preface, this book is comprised of nine chapters: (1) Becoming Critically Conscious: Theoretical Understandings; (2) Learning the Critical: Moving From Theory to Practice; (3) Conflicts and Comparisons: Using Literary Theory With Middle-Level Learners; (4) Identity and Representation: Becoming Critical of the Connection; (5) Power and Critical Literacy: Gaining Understanding of How Power Works; (6) Oppression and Critical Literacy: Becoming Conscious, Becoming Concerned; (7) Multiple Perspectives: Addressing and Understanding Differences; (8) Critical Contextualization: Using Historical Fiction to Understand Change; (9) Where Do We Go From Here? Critical Consciousness, Critical Literacy, and the Questions That Remain. Two appendixes conclude the book: (1) Social Justice Unit; and (2) Over 100 Books That Encourage Critical Consciousness. A list of references; and an index are also included.