Use these links to supplement and complement students’ reading of the work and to increase their overall enjoyment of literature. Challenge them to discern parallel themes, engage through visual and aural stimuli, and delve deeper into the thematic possibilities presented by the title.

Recommended Texts for Pairing

A Summer Life by Gary Soto

• Another collection of Soto’s memoir essays on growing up in Fresno, California, this work is divided into three parts: young childhood, early adolescence, and late adolescence.
• This work features more of Soto’s image-heavy style and explores similar themes of Identity and Environment.
• A Summer Life on SuperSummary

"Saturday at the Canal” by Gary Soto

• This free verse poem features two teen boys having a conversation about being anywhere but the poem’s setting.
• offers an opportunity for readers to compare Soto’s prose and poetry
• “Saturday at the Canal” on SuperSummary

 They Call Me Güero: A Border Kid's Poems by David Bowles

• a novel in verse that makes use of several different poetic forms
• features a Chicano protagonist, a more contemporary setting, and exploration of themes that relate to Soto’s work and life: Race, Identity, and education
• They Call Me Güero: A Border Kid's Poems on SuperSummary