National concern about the reading proficiency of adolescents and the alarming statistics on the literacy achievement of African American males have created much interest in the topic of "motivated literacy" for researchers, policy makers, and educators. African American twelfth graders perform at the same level in reading as White eighth graders (National Partnership for Teaching, 2005), and the National Assessment of Educational Progress reported that White-Black score gaps have shown "no significant change" (2007, p. 29). To address this achievement gap, this qualitative study investigated the leisure-reading motivations, habits, and textual choices of nine middle-school-aged African American males at one suburban middle school. The factors explored in this study that contributed to their leisure-reading decisions may inform the pedagogical practices of educators as they seek to advance literacy among diverse populations. The findings suggest a strong connection between leisure reading choices and a desire to address personal goals, issues, and the identities of the participants. This study's data and the previous research agree that texts should be made available for this population that reflect the personal interests of middle-school-aged African American males and that include a variety of subject choices in different mediums. Several suggestions for educators, parents, and media specialists to enhance the leisure reading motivation of this population are made based on these findings. They include making materials available that are culturally relevant and focus on the target population's personal interests and goals, conducting book talks and read alouds to introduce material to the students, and providing time within the school day to promote literacy. This study has implications for teacher education programs, curricula design, school practices, and school policies. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]