In this article, we "think with" theories of affect and transmedial storytelling to explore the cruel optimism that standardised reading pedagogies (e.g. read alouds; leveled readers/independent reading) can produce for readers. We draw on particular moments in a first grade classroom to argue that such pedagogies transmit "normalizing" affects that promise upward mobility, college and career readiness/success, classroom community, and happiness but instead "produce" literate identities, which cruelly reinforce the racialised, gendered and classist myth of meritocracy. According to Blackman (2019), cruel optimism is harmful because it normalises particular fictions and fantasies that are presented as scientific truths without acknowledging that these dominant stories are but one narrative, thereby closing off other ways of knowing, being and doing. This work offers pedagogical possibilities for bodies that are often read as unsuccessful (e.g. disengaged and struggling) and/or successful (e.g. happy and engaged) and explains how the guise of optimism can fail to acknowledge the larger social, political and economic forces at play. These forces shape the unfolding of academic realities that are simultaneously connected to the past, present and future.