In a week themed “The Future of the American Experiment,” young readers will explore life at the Mexican-American border and learn about a librarian’s impact in her own Puerto Rican community.
The CLSC Young Readers Program will discuss They Call Me Güero: A Border Kid’s Poems by David Bowles 12:15 p.m. today on the porch of the Literary Arts Center of Alumni Hall. The early readers selection is Planting Stories: The Life of Librarian and Storyteller Pura Belpré by Anika Aldamuy.
A book written in verse, They Call Me Güero follows the experience of a 12-year-old Güero, a Mexican-American, freckled and red-headed boy navigating a life in English and Spanish as he heads into seventh grade. As he embraces reading, gaming and writing poetry, Guëro finds friendship and gets into a bit of trouble. With poems ranging in subject matter from Abuela Mimi’s scary stories to middle school stress to book club adventures, the book transcends typical borders of children’s literature.
“One thing that I really loved about They Call me Güero is the fact that it’s a novel in verse (and a) short one; it makes you rethink the borders we put around our genres in writing and our reading experiences,” said Stephine Hunt, Managing Director of Literary Arts.
At the Mexican-American border, the story examines the dual identity of a young boy. In a poem titled “Border Kid,” Güero’s father offers him advice:
“You’re a border kid, a foot on either bank. / Your ancestors crossed this river a thousand times. / No wall, no matter how tall, can stop your heritage / from flowing forever, like the Río Grande itself.”
The intersection of the two worlds of Mexico and America shape Güero’s identity throughout the poems. Navigating a life split between these two countries, the book creates an intergenerational reading experience about immigrant stories with the adult Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle selection for Week Four.
“You see the human impact at the border in They Call Me Güero, and we thought it would fit really well with the adult CLSC My Side of the River,” said Hunt.
They Call Me Güero received the Pura Belpré Author Honor award, the namesake of which is the subject of the week’s early readers selection Planting Stories: The Life of Librarian and Storyteller Pura Belpré.
New York City’s first Puerto Rican librarian, Pura Belpré, carried the stories of her homeland to America in 1921. Working as a bilingual assistant, Belpré breathed new life into popular retellings and Spanish translation, spreading the seeds of stories across the country. The seeds have since blossomed into a vibrant legacy of readers who continue to share her stories and the Pura Belpré Author Honor award, which recognizes Latino authors that portray, affirm and celebrate Latino cultural experiences in an outstanding work of children’s literature.
Illustrated by Paola Escobar and written by Anika Aldamuy Denise, Planting Stories offers a lyrical text with Spanish words that capture the magical folktale feeling of Belpré’s own stories. For Hunt, the selection also broadens the reader’s worldview to the experience of a Puerto Rican storyteller and her experience moving to mainland America.
“It brings up an important context that we often place Puerto Ricans in the immigrant experience conversation, but as a territory, where do they actually exist in conversation?” Hunt said. “This book focuses on the librarian herself and getting kids to read, which is super cute, and I just love it.”
Joanna Fox and Christina Noel will lead the discussion of the CLSC Young Readers selections this week. Following the discussion, Play CHQ will host reading-related activities on the lawn of Alumni Hall.
