They Call Me Guero: A Border Kid’s Poems

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 Guero because of his red hair, pale skin, and freckles. Sometimes people only go off of what they see. Like the Mexican boxer Canelo Alvarez, twelve-year-old Guero is puro mexicano. He feels at home on both sides of the river, speaking Spanish or English. Guero 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.)

Guero 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 Guero is a classic in the making and the recipient of a Pura Belpre Honor, a Tomas Rivera Mexican American Children’s Book Award, a Claudia Lewis Award for Excellence in Poetry, and a Walter Dean Myers Honor.