![]() When I was growing up in South Texas, we'd always get stopped at the Sarita Border Patrol Checkpoint on our way back from Mexico. They'd shine a flashlight into the car and start asking questions. My mom had black hair and an olive complexion, and we knew it was really she who was expected to talk, to prove she belonged on this side of the border, but sometimes they'd talk to the three of us kids sitting in the back seat of our 1978 banana cream pie-yellow Buick. As a shy little girl, I was always left with mixed feelings and unanswered questions...and David Bowles's poem "Checkpoint" from They Call Me Güero flooded all those memories and feelings back to me. Growing up, we were ignorant of our Mexican heritage. I know that sounds incredible, and it's a twisting, convoluted story of its own, but I know this is why I found this book so poignant and personal. There are so many moments in this book that are familiar to me from an experiential/cultural sense, because I was raised in South Texas, but at the time it was through the lens of a friend or girlfriend, not within my own family. But truly, that doesn't matter--for myself or any other reader of this beautifully-crafted book. Themes transcend culture, and the poems in this book are universal: how family is the cornerstone, friendship, triumphing over adversity, and individualism are all threads running through these poems. As this book unfolds, we see Güero interact with his family members, friends, first girlfriend, bullies, teachers who believe in him, and how he navigates the challenges of middle school and hones his gifts as a reader and poet. Readers can identify with it all, even if the setting and Spanish words peppered throughout aren't familiar...and that's what the glossary is for! In these poems, Spanish and English are mixed seamlessly, just as languages are blended in so many families living anywhere cultures intersect. Another thing I love about this book: They Call Me Güero, much like the 2018-19 Texas Bluebonnet Award nominee Garvey's Choice by Nikki Grimes, is a book of poetry written from the first person point of view of a male adolescent. I was teaching 3rd grade when Garvey's Choice was on the list, and I saw how the subject matter really opened up a few of my male students to poetry. Before reading that book to them, it had been eyerolls and groans, because their experiences with poetry hadn't made it relevant enough to their own lives. So I'm thrilled to have another opportunity to promote a book that will appeal to and hopefully widen the reading lives of my students. I can't wait! Image retrieved from Social Justice Books
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