This paper explores learning to read for minority children who are emergent readers (aged 6-7). The research took place in a multicultural, multi-faith inner city primary school. The research concerned children learning to read and the meanings they made of the books they learnt to read with. The article concludes that using reader-response with young children can help us understand children's worlds and lived experiences with reading and learning to read at school. The combination of harnessing reader-response in qualitative, sociological research, which brings together concepts from literature studies, and methodologies from the Sociology of Childhood is a novel approach explored here. The article contributes to new knowledge around the issue of involving children in the teaching and learning of literacy from children's own perspectives.