They Call Me Güero

Starred review from May 6, 2019
Growing up as a Mexican-American “border kid, a foot on either bank,” the 12-year-old narrator of Bowles’s skillful, moving novel-in-poems details his seventh-grade year. Güero, so called for his rusty-colored hair and pale, freckled skin, enjoys life with his large family in a home that “glows warm with love,” but at school, he’s taunted about his complexion and bullied by enormous classmate Snake Barrera. With humor and sensitivity, Bowles (The Hidden City) mixes family scenes—such as Fourth of July celebrations and older relatives’ frank, enraging accounts of discrimination—and junior high concerns, including Güero’s relief when he and his friends (“diverse nerds and geeks”) take refuge in the library and his astonishment when he learns that brave, tough Joanna likes him back. The selections employ an impressive range of poetic styles and rhythms to amplify meaning and emotion: Joanna gets an appropriately romantic sonnet; “Borderlands,” with its thin strip of lines, is almost a concrete poem; a marching beat and rhyming couplets in “Sundays” echo the repetitive sameness of a family’s weekend routine. An achievement of both artistic skill and emotional resonance, Bowles’s volume is both a richly rewarding tour through many borderlands, including adolescence itself, and a defiant celebration of identity: “no wall, no matter how tall, can stop your heritage.” Ages 10–14.

Starred review from October 1, 2018

Gr 5-8-Güero is a Mexican American border kid with nerdy tastes, pale skin, and red hair. Wishing he had been born with a darker complexion so no one would question his Mexican American heritage, Güero's family tell him to be grateful for the advantages his lighter hair and skin afford him and to use it to open doors for the rest of his family. And what a family it is! While Güero's wise, resourceful, and often hilarious family provides a buoy through the turbulent waters of seventh grade, so too, do influential educators and "Los Bobbys," Güero's liked-minded, bookish friends. The tuned-in school librarian fuels Güero's passion for reading with his diverse literature collection, and his transformational English teacher helps him discover his voice through poetry. Güero's voice carries this novel through a playful array of poetic forms, from sonnets to raps, free verse to haiku. A Spanish-to-English glossary at the back of the book aids the non-Spanish reader's understanding of the text, while it simultaneously, and perhaps more significantly, communicates the beauty of the language and of Güero's heritage. Readers come away with two worthy takeaways: firstly, that life is challenging for a child of immigrants on the southern U.S. border, and, secondly-triumphantly-a deep appreciation for the richness of Güero's culture. VERDICT Vibrant and unforgettable, this is a must-have for all middle grade collections. Pair with both fiction and nonfiction books on immigration, forced cultural assimilation, and stories about contemporary Mexican American life.-Melissa Williams, Berwick Academy, ME

Copyright 2018 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.