In this bilingual cooking poem for young children, Jorge Argueta
encourages more creativity and fun in the kitchen as he describes how to
make tamalitos from corn masa and cheese, wrapped in cornhusks.
The book opens with an homage to corn -- white, yellow, blue, purple,
red and black. In Maya mythology the first men and women are even said
to be made of corn. It has been an important food for people in Central
America for centuries, and one of the most delicious things you can make
using corn masa and husks are tamalitos, or little tamales.
In simple poetic language, Argueta shows young cooks how to mix and
knead the dough before dropping a spoonful into a cornhusk, wrapping it
up and then steaming the little package. He once again makes cooking a
full sensory experience, including beating on a pot like a drum, dancing
the corn dance, delighting in the smell of corn masa ... And at the end,
he suggests inviting the whole family to come and enjoy the delicious
tamalitos "made of corn with love."
Domi's vivid paintings, featuring a sister and her little brother making
tamalitos together, are a perfect accompaniment to the colorful text.
Key Text Features
procedural text
recipe
Correlates to the Common Core State Standards in English Language
Arts:
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.K.7
With prompting and support, describe the relationship between
illustrations and the story in which they appear (e.g., what moment in a
story an illustration depicts).
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.3.7
Explain how specific aspects of a text's illustrations contribute to
what is conveyed by the words in a story (e.g., create mood, emphasize
aspects of a character or setting)
