The Flight of a Dove

Day, Alexandra. The Flight of a Dove. New York: Farrar Straus Giroux, 2004.
This book is based on a true story about a child with autism who shows no interest in any one until she meets a special bird. The illustrations of the child are black, white, and brown colored and the child is pictured with a box around her. Outside of the box is colorful. As the child becomes more outgoing more colors come into her box. Finally a dove impacts her so much that the box is completely gone and she is able to speak her first real word and have voluntary human contact.
The author, Alexandra day, explains in an authors note that she wrote the book to explain the “important role that animals can play in the comforting, balancing, and healing of us humans”(Day i). She also explains that she wrote the book because she worked in many hospitals with rehabilitation dogs and saw first hand the affect they had on the children. I think this helps make the book more believable and makes the reader more likely to believe that this is an accurate description of a person with autism.
This book is a good piece of diverse literature because it gets a conversation going about autism and how it can affect students. However, it does not explain the many different stages and spectrum of autism. There is some explanation about what autism is but only through examples of what the child does that makes her a little different than other students.
The book shows that miracles can happen and that it is important to help children who may be going through tough times. It is also important to remember that not all people with autism would respond in the same way this child did. This would be an important part to explain to children.