My Daughter, My Son, the Eagle, the Dove

My Daughter, My Son, The Eagle, The Dove
By: Ana Castillo
Illustrated by: S. Guevara
Dutton Books 2000
Poetry

This poem book is actually an Aztec chant, and is about a parent giving guidance to their daughter and son as they grow up. They are both told to be honest, and to remember their noble blood because it is precious. The narrator teaches them lessons about how to choose the right life long companion and when is the right time to do so. She teaches them how to have confidence but not to be cocky, and to always value their traditions and ancestors. The daughter must learn to be hardworking along with the boy because he is "the Eagle." She compares them to many objects to signify their importance to her, and it is a very sweet book about a mothers guidance.

I thought this book was especially intresting because of the illustrations that were used throughout it. There would be old Aztec pictures but the main pictures we saw of the daughter or son were very modern like them graduating. I feel like this was really great because students reading this can understand that even though you are still living a modern life you can still go back to your traditions and learn from them. It is important to think about how important your ancestors were because without them you wouldn't be. The poem style was mainly free verse and there was a lot of symbolism, like the daughter being a dove and the son a tiger. It taught some very important lessons like being humble and hardworking that any child could take into their own lives. This would be a great book to read to a class that has maybe 6th or 7th graders because there not exactly coming of age yet but are still close enough to possibly get something out of the lessons in this book.