Here is a book with issues of difference, inclusion, friends, and is filled with Brownridge's impressionistic paintings. The children were authentically linked to real world issues as they heard the book. The possibility of transformative connections occurs with a text like that.

The humor was evident in the choice of and response to books like Boys Who Rocked the World by the editors of Beyond World Publishing. This book had a series of biographical sketches of for example, Matt Groening, creator of the The Simpsons. As a mentor stated, "the Simpson theme sparked interest and feedback from the students". One answer to the question "what is a boy?" may be found in The Simpsons TV series. Boys that we know (our sons and their friends) seem to make sense of the world through the media of Bart and Homer. For example, Simpsons fans, know Stephen Hawking has the highest IQ in the world, have heard Schubert's symphonies, and know about racism, economics, travel, and modern schooling. The gendered lens of Bart Simpson and other forms of popular culture shape the home and school literacies of boys. This is an example of bringing a narrative from popular culture into school. Educators and researchers are finding it useful to use narratives which truly interest children into school. Smith and Wilhelm (2001) found this to be essential if boys were going to read in school.

The mentors and the children enjoyed and struggled with the biography of Matt Groening. Responses to this biographical story in Boys Who Rocked the World revealed that the title of the book elicited a critical response especially from girls such as

"I thought it was interesting and I wished that they put Boys and Girls."
"I think Boys Who Rocked the World was funny but I would like to hear Girls Who Rocked the World."
"It was very interesting [but] the title was awful."

Boys reported that the story was

"Very good"
"Great"
"Pretty interesting"
"Really, really liked the title"