Autobiography; Coming-of-Age; Young Adult Literature
One of the coolest things about this book is that it's based on real events. Actually, the main character, Francisco, is a version of the author, Francisco Jiménez. Jiménez says that Francisco's stories are "semiautobiographical" because they're based on his life, but not necessarily exact carbon copies (A Note from the Author.1). This means Jiménez isn't just writing an autobiography, he's also playing with the genre—and that's pretty cool.
So since Jiménez based these stories on his own childhood, this book is all about a guy growing up. And that makes this a coming-of-age tale. We get to watch as Francisco goes from a kid in Mexico with big dreams for the future, to an eighth-grader in California who, well, still has some big dreams. But he hits a lot of bumps along the way (seriously—so many bumps), and that's all part of the coming-of-age genre. He may not be an adult by the end of the book (as is often the case in coming of age books), but he's well on his way.
Usually when a book is about a young boy growing up, it's meant to be read by young folks too—and this book is no exception. Remember those bumps along the road in Francisco's tale? They may be different from those other young people experience, but insofar as they're about fitting in and figuring out who you are, they're classic young adult struggles. Don't get us wrong: adults enjoy this book like nobody's business, but its main audience is definitely a younger crowd.