The better to understand and perfect the effect of teaching with drama-ineducation, the author crafted and re-crafted the choices and arrangement of drama conventions when employing critical reading teaching in two primary schools, and later conducted a self-study from which she further reflected, advanced and renewed her knowledge and belief in drama-in-education and critical reading teaching. Coupled with drama-in-education, a picture book, The Paper Bag Princess, was used in these two teaching sessions in the hope that pupils would disconnect from the hegemony of Disney Princess Craze by exploring the story of 'alternative princess'. In the self-study, teaching portfolio was employed to record, analyze and examine the changes, worries, conflicts and results in the teaching. The author found that, in the first session, directing the pupils to acknowledge the 'alternative princess' has led to another form of authority and control. Later in the second session, the author re-crafted the drama conventions which offer drama structures in stages, changing frames and bridging roles, and that critical reading literacy has then been yielded. The self-study reveals that when a teacher requests pupils to read a text with a prescribed critical approach or a particular angle, the teaching is nothing but mainstream education. In addition, the formation of identities always remains volatile. Thus, the critical reading teaching with drama-in-education should engage the pupils to some drama experiences which are self-directed, in-depth and carry various angles and perspectives. It then allows these pupils, who are now equipped with openness and multiple viewpoints, to defend against a single and closed way of reading.