Author : Juan Felipe Herrera, Illustrator : Elly Simmons
Preschool - 2nd Grade
El canto de
las palomas - Calling the Doves
El
canto de las palomas - Calling the Doves, Softcover, Bilingual, Book,
Juan Felipe Herrera, Elly Simmons,
Preschool - 2nd Grade, 9780892391660, $7.95
$415.76 for
the Bilingual
Collection Red Books Set , Including 20%-Off, Free Shipping, and No Sales Tax
: 17
Hardcover Bilingual Books and 29 Softcover Bilingual Books
1997 Ezra
Jack Keats Book Award
Hungry Mind Review's "Children's Books of Distinction" Award Winner
1996 International Reading Association Teachers' Choice
Américas Award Honor Book
1995 Smithsonian Notable Book
Cooperative Children's Book Center Choice
School Library Journal's "Best Books of 1995"
Calling
the Doves is poet Juan Felipe Herrera's story of his migrant farmworker
childhood. In delightful and lyrical language, he recreates the joy of eating
breakfast under the open sky, listening to Mexican songs in the little trailer
house his father built, and celebrating with other families at a fiesta
in the mountains. He remembers his mother singing songs and reciting poetry, and
his father telling stories and calling the doves. For Juan Felipe, the
farmworker road was also the beginning of his personal road to becoming a
writer.
Listen
to Vienna Rose read Calling the Doves to you. A marvelous
example of the magical encounter between a child
and books that we wish for all children.
"Color pencil and acrylic paintings express the warmth and security felt by
a child growing up in a loving household."
—CCBC Choices
School Library Journal : Grade 1-3-A
rich, personal narrative about growing up as a migrant farmworker. Herrera
relates how he learned to love the land from his father, and poetry from his
mother. He uses lyrical passages to portray everyday life, e.g., the ritual of
breakfast: "The sky was my blue spoon,/the wavy clay of the land was my
plate." The colored-pencil and acrylic illustrations are bright and at
times fanciful. Simmons's artwork brings to life Herrera's words, which are
printed in both English and Spanish, and reinforces his imagery. The page layout
varies, but is appropriate for the mood of the story. The combination of a
beautiful text and radiant paintings makes Calling the Doves an excellent
bilingual picture book.
Booklist : Gr. 3-6, younger for reading aloud. In lyrical and imagistic prose,
prominent Mexican American poet Juan Felipe Herrera has written a bilingual
memoir of his childhood as the beloved son of migrant farmworkers traveling from
harvest to harvest in a truck towing their little square loaf house along the
roads winding through the mountains and valleys of California. Embraced by the
love of his family, Herrera was set on his own road to becoming a writer.
"As the cities came into view, I knew one day I would follow my own road. I
would let my voice fly the way my mother recited poems, the way my father called
the doves." Composed in the style of robust murals, Simmons' lushly
colored, creamy illustrations pulsate with a multitude of images as they chart
the landscapes of Herrera's childhood heartland. Certainly a welcome alternative
to the usually bleak portrayal of the migrant farmworker experience, this is an
inspirational self-portrait of a loving Latino family. A poetic picture-book
memoir that will add beauty to any literature, Latino culture, or biography
collection. Annie Ayres
MultiCultural Review, March 1996 : This is a compelling autobiography of an
outstanding Mexican-American poet who offers an account of his humble
beginnings. His first eight years were spent traveling through California
where his father was a migrant farmworker. The family of three lived in a tent
resembling a gigantic "tortilla dipped in green tomato sauce". The
resplendent language is enhanced by Simmon's realistic portrayal of Mexican
Americans via brillantly detailed illustrations. The vivid colored-pencil and
acrylic-paint-on-rag-paper illustrations energize the writer's account of his
experiences with Nature (i.e., the howling wolves and Papa's dove-calling can
almost be heard; the hot sun over the fields compels the reader to empathize
with laborers; the aroma of tortillas, churros con canela y azucar, and other
tantalizing foods seems very real). Herrera is a role model and
esteem-builder for Hispanics. This picture book is strongly recommended for use
in migrant or ESL classes. --Osbelia Juarez Rocha, Odessa, TX
Bilingual
Collection Red Books :
