They Call Me Güero. David Bowles
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Название: They Call Me Güero

Автор: David Bowles

Издательство: Ingram

Жанр: Учебная литература

Серия:

isbn: 9781947627277

isbn:

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      light as feathers

      but guiding me

      all the same.

      LULLABY

      Like lots of border kids,

      my first song was a lullaby

      that my abuela sang

      to warn me and to mystify.

      My mom says when I got home,

      smiling without teeth,

      she took me in her arms

      and serenaded me—

       Duérmete mi niño

       duérmeteme ya

       porque viene el Cucu

      y te comerá.

      Y si no te come,

       él te llevará

       hasta su casita

      que en el monte está.

       Go to sleep, my baby

       sleep for me right now

       to keep Cucu from coming

      and swallowing you down.

       And if he doesn’t eat you

       he’ll take you far from me

       to his little cabin

      that sits amid the trees.

      So I learned the dangers

      of this crazy, mixed-up place—

      there are monsters lurking,

      but family lore can keep you safe.

      LEARNING TO READ

      When I was a little kid,

      my abuela Mimi would ease down

      into her old, creaky rocking chair

      to tell my cousins and me

      such spine-tingling tales

      as ever a pingo fronterizo,

      crazy for cucuys, could hope to hear.

      I always had questions

      at the end of Mimi’s stories.

      What was the little boy’s name?

      What did his parents do

      when they found him missing

      from his room?

      Is there a special police squad

      that tracks down monster hands

      and witch owls and sobbing spirits

      in order to save the boys and girls

      that they’ve stolen?

      “No sé, m’ijo. The story just ends.

      Happened once upon a time.

      Nobody knows.”

      But I didn’t get it. I was so literal.

      I believed every story she told was true.

      So I kept asking my questions,

      guessing at answers

      till she broke down at last

      and told me the greatest truth:

      “You have to learn to read, Güerito.

      You will only find what you seek

      in the pages of books.”

      So I began to bug my mom

      to teach me to read till she did.

      I was barely five at the time.

      First day of kinder arrived, and I was so excited

      at all the books my sister said were waiting

      on the shelves for me.

      But then the teacher started drawing

      the letter “A” on the board, and I soon got it—

      none of the other kids could read.

      She was going to teach us the alphabet

      one letter per day! Not me! No way!

      I dropped out of kindergarten,

      little rebel that I was.

      Instead, my mom took me

      to the public library

      every day, all year long.

      I read book after book after book

      delighting in the new tales,

      the strange and mysterious places.

      And when first grade rolled around

      (not optional like kinder),

      the school was so amazed at my skill

      they put me in a third-grade reading class!

      I got picked on, sure, but I was pretty proud

      and didn’t care when kids called me nerd.

      The school counselor told my folks

      I can already read at college level!

      And I’ve found lots of answers,

      but also many new questions.

      Of course I pass all the state tests

      with super high scores.

      Learning in class is easy for me.

      Dad says all those books

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