Juan Felipe Herrera

Juan Felipe Herrera is the 21st U.S. Poet Laureate. Learn more about him from our in-depth interview!

Books by This Author

Calling the Doves

Illustration of young boy and his migrant family
Illustrated by: Elly Simmons
Language: Spanish (Bilingual Eng/Sp)

Product Description: Calling the Doves is poet Juan Felipe Herrera's story of his migrant farmworker childhood. In delightful and lyrical language, he recreates the joy of eating breakfast under the open sky, listening to Mexican songs in the little trailer house his father built, and celebrating with other families at a fiesta in the mountains. He remembers his mother singing songs and reciting poetry, and his father telling stories and calling the doves.

Cerca / Close

Drawing of a smiling girl in front of green hills with flowers.
Illustrated by: Blanca Gómez
Age Level: 3-6
Language: Spanish (Bilingual Eng/Sp)

Mi cuarto está cerca de la cocina. My bedroom is close to the kitchen.

As she walks from her kitchen through a daisy-filled yard to the house next door, a little girl notices things that are close to each other — just as the little boy she goes to visit is close to her.

CrashBoomLove

Mexican-American poet Herrera wrote one of the first novels in verse for the teen audience. Sixteen-year old Cesar is the son of migrant workers, and he shares his coming-of-age experiences.

Downtown Boy

"In 1950s California, 10-year-old Juanito is tired of moving with his migrant-worker parents and staying in relatives' homes in San Francisco's Mission District. He aches for his often-absent father. Finally, Papi returns, and home becomes San Diego, where Juanito settles into a deeper sense of place and faces family secrets and hardship." — Booklist

Featherless/Desplumado

Featherless/Desplumado

At his new school, everyone asks Tomasito why he is in a wheelchair. His father gives him a new pet to make him smile, but this bird is a little bit different too. Can Tomasito's featherless friend teach him that he doesn't have to stay on the sidelines — and that there's more than one way to fly? Related classroom activities available from Children's Book Press.

Grandma and Me at the Flea

Illustrated by: Anita De Lucio-Brock
Age Level: 6-9

Juan Felipe Herrera shares memories of the time he spent with his grandmother at the local flea market in this uplifting story. From the woman who sells hot chiles to the man who sells eagle belt-buckles, the flea market offers so many sights, sounds, and tastes to take in. What Juan begins to realize, though, is that the flea market is much more than a collection of tents and vendors — it is a community. Anita de Lucio-Brocks vibrant illustrations fill the pages with stunning color and detail. Bilingual text.

Imagine

Imagine
Illustrated by: Lauren Castillo
Age Level: 6-9

Have you ever imagined what you might be when you grow up? When he was very young, Juan Felipe Herrera picked chamomile flowers in windy fields and let tadpoles swim across his hands in a creek. He slept outside and learned to say good-bye to his amiguitos each time his family moved to a new town. He went to school and taught himself to read and write English and filled paper pads with rivers of ink as he walked down the street after school.

Laughing Out Loud, I Fly

man chilling with flowers
Language: Spanish (Bilingual Eng/Sp)

Product Description: Juan Felipe Herrera writes in both Spanish and English about the joy and laughter and sometimes the confusion of growing up in an upside-down, jumbled-up world-between two cultures, two homes. Skillfully crafted, joyful, and fun, the poems are paired with whimsical black and white drawings by Karen Barbour.

Lejos / Far

Lejos/Far
Illustrated by: Blanca Gómez
Age Level: 0-3
Language: Spanish (Bilingual Eng/Sp)

Some things are close — cerca. Others are far — lejos. With sweet simplicity, this charming dual-language board book and its companion volume, Cerca/Close, engage young children.

El árbol de limones está lejos de mi casa. The lemon tree is far from my house.

The little boy’s house is far from the city, and the city is far from the ocean. What about the mountains in the distance, or the clouds in the sky, or the sun that shines over the boy as he walks?

Pages