Jolene Gutiérrez's 3 favorite reads in 2023

Mexikid has everything: humor, heart, and honesty.

Pedro Martín’s childhood experiences mirror many of my husband’s experiences, so from the moment I picked up this book, there was a sense of familiarity and comfort (I bought a copy of the book for my husband so he could connect in the same way).

When I say familiarity and comfort, please don’t read that as predictability. This book takes you on some hairpin twists and turns—from Peter/Pedro’s family trip to Mexico to his “historic haircut” to an adventure in the cemetery. You don’t know what’s coming next, and that, coupled with Pedro Martín’s sincere but often hilarious voice, makes for an amazing book.

I loved this book because of my connection to the material within, but all readers will learn from Pedro and fall in love with his family and their adventures.

In this historical fiction verse novel set in 1987, we meet Calvin Johnston and his brothers. The brothers all have hemophilia and have contracted HIV through blood transfusions.

Calvin and his family live in Ashland, the “Friendliest Little Town,” but many of the people in Ashland react out of fear rather than friendship when they learn of the Johnston brothers’ diagnosis. I grew up in a small, sheltered town like Ashland, and I have to wonder how our village (and young me) would’ve reacted to a similar situation.

One of the things I love most about books is that they give me a chance to try on someone else’s life for a bit. Blood Brothers turned me inside out, broke my heart, and allowed me a chance to reflect and grow.

Rob Sanders’ lyrical writing, coupled with supporting information at the back of the book, makes this an amazing option for a book club or class novel.

As much as I love learning about things, I sometimes struggle when reading nonfiction. The topic might be fascinating to me, but dense blocks of text (or audio) make me tune out. That never happened with this book, though! Short, snappy chapters written in a conversational voice made me want to keep reading.

I loved the “Interludes” (side-note chapters) and the Q&A chapters with various experts in the field. Jules Zuckerberg’s illustrations and comic strips add humor to the text, and Eliot Schrefer’s well-researched book also includes extensive back matter with book lists, glossary, and notes.

For me, this book was a constant source of learning and wonder. I also felt a lot of frustration, though, because some of the information shared within Queer Ducks has been buried/ignored by the majority of the scientific community for decades, maybe even centuries.

I’m so grateful to Eliot Schrefer and Jules Zuckerberg for finding a framework to share this information with everyday readers like me.