Editor’s note: We continue with our 31 Days of Reading in Spanish. Check out the book review below and don’t forget to enter our weekly GIVEAWAY of $100 worth of books in Spanish!
BOOK DESCRIPTION/REVIEW
How many times have your kids wished to be older and have more privileges? How often are they envious of an older sibling that is capable and allowed to do more things?
In Gwendolyn Zepeda’s award-winning bilingual picture book Los Tamales de Ana/Growing Up with Tamales, Ana is the younger sister who is always wishing she were just like her older sister Lidia. Every Christmas the girls are assigned jobs to help make the tamales: mixing the masa, spreading it on the corn husks, filling and rolling the tamales — and every year Ana envies what her sister is able to do.
We see Ana getting older as the years pass, turning 10, 12, 14, and 16, and Ana sees Lidia always two years older, and always able to do the more difficult tasks.
Sweet Ana does not get discouraged and knows that when she grows up, she will make the tamales by herself and get to deliver them to all of her family and friends.
Los Tamales de Ana is a delightful story and combines the holiday tradition of making tamales as a family with the wishes of a little girl who can’t wait to grow up. I can’t wait to take this book out this December when we are making our own tamales!
BOOK DETAILS
Title: Growing Up with Tamales/ Los Tamales de Ana
Author: Gwendolyn Zepeda
Illustrator: April Ward
Ages: 3-7 years
Publisher/Year: Arte Publico Press/2008
ISBN: 9781558854932
Price: $20.22 on Amazon.com
