Abstract
In this research study, we document the experiences of four girls with reading difficulties who participated in a book club designed to promote critical discussion of sociocultural gender issues. Throughout the reading of The Hunger Games, we were especially interested in how the girls might view characters and plotlines that presented and challenged various forms of masculinity and femininity with respect to their own positioning as girls who were struggling readers. The book club sessions were designed to examine representations in the novel in ways that connected to the participants' lives, helping them to become aware of gendered norms in order to critique them. We first explore the literature about the use of popular texts in education, present our sociological interpretive case study methodology, and then discuss the complex ways in which our participants' approached power, violence, and gender.