Calling the Doves=El canto de las palomas

Herrara, J.F., & Simmons, E. Calling the Doves=El canto de las palomas. (1995). CA: Children’s Book Press

Lexile Score: AD910L

Summary: This bilingual story is about poet Juan Felipe Herrera's migrant farmworker childhood. His poetic style re-creates the joy of eating under the open sky, celebrating at a fiesta with other farm families, and listening to his mother singing Mexican songs and his father calling the doves.

Evaluation: This book uses poetic language to bring back positive memories. Children will see a historically accurate picture of America’s transitory workers and gain an appreciation for a different point of view and way of living. Even though they were obviously poor (Juan describes sleeping under a tent many nights), they had a good time as a family and lots of love for each other, which is the main theme in the story. Therefore, it provides a great lesson for children to learn.

However, I found the storyline a little boring at time. Students wouldn’t find it very engaging seeing as though there really isn’t a strong plot or conflict. The illustrations were somewhat engaging for children because of the colorful pictures. The students are only able to see one culture and that is Mexican American.

The copyright proves that this book is quite dated because of it being published in 1995, yet it is still accurate for children to read. The story does do a good job of providing multiple settings and explaining the parents in detail. Readers are able see different lifestyles outside of their own, which is also good for expanding literature diversity. Overall, I think it would be a great book for students who are bilingual or trying to learn Spanish and or English, but it wouldn’t recommend this story to discuss plot or conflict.

Literary elements: Characters- Mother, Lucha and father Felipe

Setting- The mountains and valleys of California, Fowler, Chihuahua, Mexico are all mentioned and talked about in the story

Similes- “In their bright colors, campesinos dotted the land like tropical birds.”

Mini lesson: I would chose to do a mini lesson on characters because Juan really goes in depth about his parent’s past life. Therefore, I would have the activity be the “Where I’m From” poem that we did in class. This way students, can pick either to write about Juan’s mother or father and it’s an engaging activity that is basically just filling in the blanks. Plus, this activity is very fitting since the author is a poet.

Target Audience: PreK- 3^rd grade because it’s a great introduction to the importance of characters and it’s a good bilingual book.