This study highlights a cross-course collaboration around children's literature and grammar in one teacher preparation program. Pre-service teachers created digital picture books and video feedback for their peers in which they ultimately adopted shifting stances in thinking like readers and writers throughout their process. By situating reading and writing as reciprocal acts, pre-service teachers developed more nuanced understandings of authorship, audience, and language. Implications for this work suggest the power of creating learning opportunities for students and pre-service teachers that integrate--rather than silo--the varying strands of English language arts.