Reading aloud to children is a ubiquitous practice in early childhood settings. While there are many recommendations for how educators should conduct these experiences, little research in the past decade has examined how read-alouds are actually accomplished. Using anthropological and sociological theories of learning, literacy and research, our analysis illustrates how read-alouds are enacted in three kindergarten classrooms. Our analysis highlights similarities and differences in how these phenomena are produced and raises questions about the consequences current ideologies of literacy learning may have for young children's understandings of reading and of themselves as readers. Differences amongst the research sites are discussed in light of Cummins' continuum of coercive and transformational curricula.