Middle School Literature

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, 12-year-old Güero is puro mexicano. He feels at home on both sides of the river, speaking Spanish or English. 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.

Triplets Hiro, Akira, and Naoki Tanaka love their school and classmates, but they have one big secret they’re keeping. They can do magic! They learn from their father, and they have one major rule: No magic without permission, no exceptions. Otherwise, they’ll have to leave their normal school with all their friends to study how to do magic “the right way.” But sometimes magic feels like the only way to solve a problem! And when they get themselves into all sorts of trouble, it’s up to the siblings to fix the spells and clean up any magical messes.

From fourteen-year-old author Brayden Harrington, the young boy who electrified the nation when he spoke at the Democratic National Convention in 2020, comes a fictional middle grade contemporary story about a boy named Jayson who stutters and the challenges he faces and the obstacles he must overcome as he campaigns for student-body president.