This article presents a case study of young bilingual students' discussions of literature in a second-grade Spanish/English bilingual classroom in the US. Sociocultural, critical, and Chicana feminist perspectives informed an analysis of the ways the children worked at understanding, marking, and resisting gender boundaries. This critical discourse analysis helped reveal students' emergent gender ideologies and their awareness of gender inequities as they discussed the picture book Oliver Button Is a Sissy. Contrary to common assumptions that question young language minority children's ability to engage in critical discussions, the children's talk revealed sophisticated understandings of various gender issues in contemporary US society. The results of the study show how young bilingual children are developing and negotiating sometimes contradictory gender ideologies, and how the literacy events in primary classrooms can create a context where that negotiation can take place, while also supporting the development of children's academic and social identities. (Contains 1 note.)