A Perfect Season for Dreaming

                        A Perfect Season For Dreaming

Lexile Level: Not Available

            A Perfect Season for Dreaming, is written by Benjamin Alire Saenz, and illustrated by Esau Andrade Valencia. This story is a bilingual story about an older man, Octavio Rivera, who dreams each day of summer. In his dream something strange comes out of a piñata, like three pears that turn into blooming cacti. The story continues and Octavio really wants to tell someone about his dreams but he has excuses for each person. Some of the people might say he is crazy or that it is his diet that is making him dream such strange things. He keeps the dreams to himself, until he decides to tell his granddaughter. She understands his dreams and says that they are the most beautiful.
Is this a good story?
            I think this story is very cute and well written. I think students will really enjoy this book, because it is silly, but has a good message. One thing that I would change about this story is to have the Spanish be the first language and English be the second language.
What did the author want to tell me in the story? Was the theme worthwhile?
            I think the author wanted to tell the reader that it is okay to tell people personal things like dreams. I also think the author wanted to show different cultures to the reader, and how they can be similar yet different. In one of Octavio’s dreams he dreams of flying pigs from Iowa. He includes some American geography and names to connect the story to the American culture as well as the Mexican.
Is the culture accurately portrayed?
I think the culture is accurately portrayed the author includes family and friends in the book which is important to the Mexican Culture. The author also has Spanish translation and even includes some of the Spanish in the English section. For example, saying siesta instead of nap.
Are the illustrations authentic and non-stereotypical?
            The illustrator does a great job on capturing the culture in their illustrations. Each illustration has Octavio in the pictures and the piñata. Valencia also includes bright color on every page. These illustrations look very authentic for the Mexican culture.
            This book includes foreshadowing. For example, the text says, “Octavio Rivera, who was seventy-eight years old, had a feeling that he was about to have the most fantastic dreams of his life”. This is foreshadowing to the dreams that Octavio was going to have. The text also include repetition like, “And when Octavio Rivera woke, he told no one about his dreams”. This line is repeated several times in the story. The author also includes personification such as, “the armadillos were hitchhiking to Tucson”. In his dreams all these animals or objects have some type of human quality.
            The illustrations are done very nicely in the book. They show all the dreams come alive in the book, and they give the reader a really great visual of the story. The reader can see a piñata on almost every page in the book, and the pictures are very detailed.
            A mini lesson I would have with my students is to raise their hands whenever they hear any figurative language (repetition, personification, or foreshadowing) during the story. The next part of the lesson I would like them to use personification in their writing. They must write a paragraph using personification. The paragraph can be a about a dream or they can choose to do something else.

Citation:
Saenz, B. A. Valencia, E. A. (illustrator). 2008. A Perfect Season for Dreaming. Cinco Puntos Press