Tamalitos
Un poema para cocinar / A Cooking Poem
-
- $5.99
-
- $5.99
Publisher Description
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)
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Argueta's fourth bilingual "cooking poem" is built around another elementally simple dish: tamalitos, "little tamales" of corn and cheese. The poem unfolds as a recipe, narrated by a boy who is well aware of the importance of corn in his family history: "Our indigenous ancestors ate/ tamalitos made from corn./ It also says in the Popol Vuh,/ the sacred book of the Maya,/ that the first men and women were made of corn." Bright colors blend like tie-dye in Domi's na f watercolors, which alternate between scenes of the boy assembling tamalitos and more esoteric images of celebration. While the soaking, kneading, and steaming of these basic ingredients lacks some of the drama of Argueta's earlier books, Domi's paintings communicate plenty of enthusiasm, and readers may feel the pull to "Baila la danza del ma z." Ages 4 7.
