In the current schooling climate, literary competence is increasingly viewed as students' ability to read fiction and nonfiction texts, and then articulate their comprehension of surface-text features (e.g., plot, character, setting, and conflict) through structured settings, such as standardized tests. As a way to argue against the privileging of this perspective, literary experiences of 5 sixth-grade students--4 of whom were children of recent immigrants--are examined within a school-based book club. These students were able to articulate their literary competence through personal storytelling by wearing the mantle of a "co-character," which afforded them an opportunity to set their own stories alongside the stories of fictional characters. Through this discursive role, these students implemented an evocative framework for demonstrating their literary competence. This framework asks young readers to comprehend the underlying feelings of characters that provoke and instigate those characters' actions. These students illustrated that understanding the affective sensibilities of fictional characters created a complex, multifaceted form of literary competence beyond simple comprehension of surface-text features. Space needs to be created within middle school classrooms for students to use affective, personal storytelling as a way to demonstrate literary competence, and expand socially just opportunities for culturally and linguistically diverse students within literacy curricula.