This research investigates the impact of teaching Shakespeare to below-grade-level readers in an English Language Arts classroom on Chicago's South Side. The students studied are five middle school boys who were observed over a two-year course of study under the same teacher who, after finding success with this method, found herself asking, how is it that underperforming readers were able to make their way into such complicated text? In fact, by the end of the two years, all were reading at or far above grade level. The study argues that focusing on students' strengths, teacher choice, and using the classics, introducing students to the best that literature has to offer, can provide a convincing case for the joys of reading--a far more convincing case than typical reading interventions provide.