The authors share findings from a study that incorporated two types of participatory interview approaches (conversational drawing interviews and walking tour interviews) to elicit young students' (K-2) motivation-related perceptions of a reading intervention to better understand and support their motivation for doing reading in the program. All 14 students shared perceived benefits of intervention participation, and 10 students shared perceived costs. For five students, the perceived costs appeared to outweigh the perceived benefits; these students reported that if allowed to choose, they would not participate in the reading intervention. A perceived lack of autonomy within the intervention was a common theme woven through these students' responses. Given the connection between motivation and achievement, the authors emphasize the importance of eliciting students' motivation-related perceptions of reading instruction and offer suggestions for probing young students' understandings.