A Perfect Season for Dreaming / Un Tiempo Perfecto Para Soar

"The story's rhythmic, repetitive structure makes it an excellent read-aloud. . . . Meanwhile, [Esau Andrade] Valencia's bright oil paintings evoke the joy of dreams and imagination. . . . Children of all backgrounds will enjoy it."—School Library Journal

Ninety-two-year-old Octavio Rivera is a beautiful dreamer. And lately he has been visited by some very interesting dreams—dreams about piñatas that spill their treasures before him, revealing kissing turtles, winged pigs, hitchhiking armadillos and many more fantastic things! Octavio doesn’t tell anyone about his dreams except his young granddaughter Regina because she alone understands beautiful and fantastic dreams. On the ninth afternoon Octavio prepares for his siesta hoping to be blessed with one last lovely dream. That afternoon he dreams of a sky full of sweet and perfect hummingbirds calling his name over and over again…

Like Margaret Wild’s marvelous book Old Pig, A Perfect Season for Dreaming unfolds the sweet possibilities in relationships between the very old and the very young.

Benjamin Alire Sáenz­—novelist, poet, essayist and writer of children’s books—is at the forefront of the emerging Latino literatures. He has received the Wallace Stegner Fellowship and the Lannan Fellowship and an American Book Award. He teaches at the University of Texas at El Paso, and considers himself a fronterizo, a person of the border.

Esau Andrade Valencia, born in Mexico, comes from a family of folk artists. Although still young, he is increasingly recognized as a master artist in the tradition of the great painters such as Diego Rivera and Rufino Tamayo, in whose footsteps he follows. Esau's paintings are included in the collection of The Museum of Latin American Art in Long Beach as well as in the Downey Museum of Art in California.