They Call Me Guero, David Bowles
They Call Me Guero, David Bowles
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They Call Me Güero
A Border Kid's Poems

Author: David Bowles

Narrator: Andres Zuno

Unabridged: 1 hr 41 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 08/24/2021


Synopsis

An award-winning novel in verse about a boy who navigates the start of seventh grade and life growing up on the border the only way that feels right—through poetry.

They call him Güero because of his red hair, pale skin, and freckles. Sometimes people only go off of what they see. Like the Mexican boxer Canelo Álvarez, twelve-year-old Güero is puro mexicano. He feels at home on both sides of the river, speaking Spanish or English. Güero is also a reader, gamer, and musician who runs with a squad of misfits called Los Bobbys. Together, they joke around and talk about their expanding world, which now includes girls. (Don’t cross Joanna—she's tough as nails.)
 
Güero faces the start of seventh grade with heart and smarts, his family’s traditions, and his trusty accordion. And when life gets tough for this Mexican American border kid, he knows what to do: He writes poetry. 
 
Honoring multiple poetic traditions, They Call Me Güero is a classic in the making and the recipient of a Pura Belpré Honor, a Tomás Rivera Mexican American Children's Book Award, a Claudia Lewis Award for Excellence in Poetry, and a Walter Dean Myers Honor.

About The Author

DAVID BOWLES grew up in the Rio Grande Valley of South Texas, where he teaches at UTRGV. He’s the author of several award-winning titles, including The Smoking Mirror, the 13th Street series, and Feathered Serpent, Dark Heart of Sky: Myths of Mexico. His picture book debut, My Two Border Towns, is available in English and Spanish. In 2020, David co-founded #DignidadLiteraria, a grassroots activist hashtag and movement dedicated to promoting equity for Latinx people in publishing. You can find him online at davidbowles.us and @DavidOBowles on most social media platforms.  


Reviews

Goodreads review by Rachel on November 12, 2018

I bought this for my 12 year old, but ended up reading it first. Güero's story is timely and engaging. His words are in turns funny, sweet, clever, and moving. I loved the palpable joy in Güero's family, his unabashed nerdiness, his three friends Bobby, his abiding awareness of his roots, and his fl......more

Goodreads review by Ruben on December 23, 2018

I loved reading this book! We cheer with Güero as he overcomes bullies and celebrates family traditions. Bowles weaves this tale of growing up in our beautiful RGV, expertly using different poetry forms. He gives such incredible detail about what it’s like growing up here. If I were a character in t......more

Goodreads review by Katy O. on January 31, 2020

This 2019 Pura Belpre Award winner is one I meant to read right when I got it in my school library last spring and than, as often happens, it got shelved and slipped my mind. I’m so happy I got to it now though! It’s a slim almost-novel in verse written in a combination of English and Spanish about......more

Goodreads review by Leslie on February 22, 2020

As a gringa living on the on the El Paso, Texas-Juarez, Mexico border, I speak a fair amount of Spanglish or Tex-Mex. But when I read the title of this to myself (thank goodness, not aloud), I was pronouncing güero as guerro - the word for war in Spanish. Rolling those double Rs the best I could. I......more

Goodreads review by Elvis on March 05, 2019

In David Bowles’ feisty verse novel, They Call Me Guero, he explores the life of 12-year-old Mexican-American narrator that everyone calls Güero, in his home of the borderlands. Bowles wonderfully shows how normal life is living near the border, a far cry from a “crisis area” that some of the countr......more