While teaching basic reading to students at a two-year college, the author had the idea to introduce his students to texts as challenging as the traditional material, but less complex. In doing so, he hoped to tap into the students' high competency in "street literacy"--the ability to decode the visual signs that are omnipresent in popular culture--thereby connecting "the texts of the school to the texts of the street." By providing examples of classroom practice and student responses to two popular children's authors (Dr. Seuss and Shel Silverstein) in connection with their primary readings, the author illustrates how presenting books as living texts can help create a hunger in students for the pleasures and rewards of active meaning making.