Juan Felipe Herrera: Bilingual Children's Books | Young Minds Dreaming | Ask an Author

Juan Felipe Herrera, the son of Mexican migrant farmers, grew up in the San Joaquin Valley in Southern California. As a child, he attended school in a variety of small towns from San Francisco to San Diego. He started school only speaking Spanish. Inspired by his teacher, Mrs. Sampson, Juan went on to not only learn English, but grew to love writing poetry. 

Herrera was the keynote speaker at the 2019 Young Minds Dreaming Contest held for the third year in a row at the South Carolina State Library. When Knowitall sat down with him, Juan read excerpts in both English and Spanish from two of his children books, Calling the Doves and The Upside Down Boy.

Standards

• ELA.AOR.1 Evaluate and critique key literary elements that enhance and deepen meaning within and across texts.
  • ELA.1.AOR.1.1 Identify and describe the main story elements, such as character(s), setting, and events that move the plot forward
• ELA.AOR.1 Evaluate and critique key literary elements that enhance and deepen meaning within and across texts.
  • ELA.2.AOR.1.1 Describe the main story elements and sequence the important events
• ELA.AOR.2 Evaluate and critique the development of themes and central ideas within and across texts.
  • ELA.3.AOR.2.1 Identify and explain an explicit theme in a literary text and how it is developed by key details
• ELA.AOR.2 Evaluate and critique the development of themes and central ideas within and across texts.
  • ELA.4.AOR.2.1 Identify and explain an explicit or implied theme and how it is developed by key details in a literary text.
• ELA.AOR.2 Evaluate and critique the development of themes and central ideas within and across texts.
  • ELA.5.AOR.2.1 Explain the development of an explicit or implied theme over the course of a literary text

Resources