Book Review: The Flight of a Dove

Day, Alexandra. The Flight of a Dove. New York: Farrar Straus Giroux, 2004.

The Flight of a Dove is a story about a young girl named Betsy who struggles with autism. Up until she was three years old she would never say or make a sound other than a clicking noise. Betsy would sit for hours in a complete motionless state and absolutely hated it when people came near her or tried to touch her. Her life changed when she saw a dove fly by her who opened her eyes and put a smile on her face. She became attached to this dove and eventually to other animals. Soon Betsy became more social and active within her classroom, but still never saying a word. Then finally one day she went running into her mother’s arms yelling “Mommy”.

Alexandra Day has spent a lot of time in hospitals and rehabilitation centers with her dog Zabala. Zabala is a certified therapy dog which was the main inspiration Day had for writing this book. This is why Day is considered an insider to disabilities, because she has been working with people with disabilities for many years. Alexandra Day wrote this book to show her readers how animals are common inspirational tools to people with special needs, especially people with autism. She uses her own personal experiences when writing this book.

The Flight of a Dove is a great example of a diverse piece of literature. Not only is this book informational, but it can be very inspirational to young readers. This book describes in a positive way how a child who was told there was no guarantee she would ever say a word because of her disability can find comfort in animals, leading her to be able to speak her first word, Mommy. The one thing that Day does a great job of doing was she avoided stereotyping within her book. Stereotyping is often times seen as a problem within a lot of diverse literature read today and even more so in the past. For example, one of the big stereotypes that the Linton article mentioned was using the phrase “overcoming a disability”. Day never used that phrase but instead said Betsy’s mother wanted to “help her condition”. It’s simply not physically possible for someone to overcome a disability, which is why this phrase should not be used in books. Day also describes common behavioral and emotional problems that people with autism can face, but stays clear or stereotyping Betsy (the main character). Some of the common behaviors she did include within this book are “she dislikes being touched” “she made no sounds except a kind of hissing of clicking” and “she would sit for hours swaying slightly with her arms at her sides”. Overall Alexandra was effective in this book in showing how children with disabilities can change in a way they never were before.