I enjoyed the book “A Perfect Season for Dreaming” by Benjamin Alire Saenz for a lot of reasons. First, this book is about a 92-year-old Octavio Rivera has dreams that he shares with only his granddaughter. The book was fun to read because it has access to two different languages and it is accessible for Spanish speakers and English speakers. This book is a good book to have in the classroom for purposes of exposure and culture accessibility for the students to migrate to. This was a book that was great to read to children and provide exposure to life other than theirs or a life that some students can relate to. Overall, I believe that this book does a great job of creating growth for children in an aspect not only to language, but culture as well as acceptance in classrooms. ( )

The Perfect Season for Dreaming is an extraordinary piece of literature that provides a sense of wonder, joy, and entertainment through every flip of the page. The story moves through the day dreams of Octavio Rivera and his decision of who to tell about his vivid dreams. The figurative and descriptive language throughout Octavio’s dreams and the quick character development of each character alongside an organized plot provides a fun, carefree story with a main idea of being carefree and taking pride in one’s creativity.
Octavio dreams of animals in mariachi outfits, flying pigs, turtles, and several other quirky scenes and struggles to think of someone in his family to tell about them all. The story shuffles through characters he debates telling, providing rapid listing of characters, usually one per page. This allows us to meet Octavio’s family and learn about the serious and straitlaced adults and his imaginative granddaughter. Each person gets a page description as Octavio decides if it would be worth it to tell them about his dreams.
The plot of The Perfect Season for Dreaming flows seamlessly as Octavio dreams and lets his imagination blend with reality. As he tries to decide who to explain his dreams to, the list of serious unimaginative adults further underlines the main idea. The climax or central point when he decides to tell his granddaughter whop still holds a sense of childish imagination and wonder also allows that sense of creativity to be stressed even more. ( )

There are three reasons that I really liked this A Perfect Season for Dreaming. The first thing I noticed and loved about this book was that the author had written it in both English and Spanish. I thought that it was interesting to first read the story in English but then compare to how the same writing translated into Spanish. I think that stories that are written about other heritages should have the translation of the language. It makes the story more personable and gives the reader a better understanding. The second reason I loved this story was because of the main character, Octavio Rivera. Octavio is an older man that keeps having the strangest and most complex dreams. He so badly wants to tell people about his dreams but has difficulty thinking of someone that won’t judge him or think he’s a crazy old man. His character is believable and relatable. I personally can relate to him and why he feels so nervous to tell anyone about his strange dreams and the urge he has to tell someone. Lastly, the book had amazing illustrations that perfectly depicted his dreams. The colors used were vibrant and exciting which kept me engaged. The illustrations were lively too. You couldn’t help but chuckle a little when you read about his crazy dreams and the treasures they featured. The illustrator depicted each dreams treasure as if they were falling out of the sky. I thought that was an interesting way of depicting a dream. Without giving the ending away, I loved that Octavio was finally able to tell someone about his dreams, someone who completely understood his mind and was also a beautiful dreamer. This shows the relationship between family members and their appreciation for each other. The message that this book sends was so positive and overall just nice to read about. ( )

Pasta Dura

In made mixed feelings about this book after reading it. I liked the book because it was very descriptive when it came to the grandfather describing all of his dreams and his desire to tell someone about it. But I didn't like the story because for me there wasn't a clear ending. In the end of the story I wasn't sure if the character pasted away or not. I did think that the illustrations were very detailed which made the book more interesting but I felt like the book wasn't the easiest to follow. ( )