It's Christmas time and Maria and her family are making tamales.  Maria is feeling very grown up when her momma lets her wear an apron and some lipstick.  Maria has been admiring her momma's ring and when she stepped out of the kitchen, Maria put on the ring.  Before she knew it, the ring had slipped off her finger and into one of the 24 tamales.  The guests arrive and Maria and her cousins eat ALL 24 tamales in search of the ring.  As they finish the last tamale, Maria goes to confess to her mother and she sees the ring on her finger, too many tamales!  

Gary Soto depicts a warm family celebrating a traditional Christmas and a young girl battling a dilemma.  This situation is extremely relatable for children of all ages.  Soto also includes Hispanic tradition without making that a main focus of the story.  He playfully adds the idea of forgiveness and family time into this holiday spirit story. 

I think it would be fun for students see how tamales are made.  We could also include a discussion of our own holiday traditions to understand the diversity within our classroom.  I highly recommend this book for students.  It is a great way for students to understand how to work around sticky situations and the benefit of being honest.  

I absolutely LOVED this book!  Clara and Samson are planning Clara's birthday party when they decide to have a piñata.  "Hooray, a piñata!" they shouted.  They venture down to the piñata store where Clara chooses a puppy piñata, which she later names Lucky.  Clara and Lucky do everything together from digging holes to going to Grandma's house.  She has so much fun with Lucky that she does not want anyone to break him at her birthday party.  Thankfully, Samson has a plan for that and comes to the rescue.  

Elisa Kleven, author and illustrator, does a fantastic job of adding color and excitement through the words and detailed pictures.  This is also a perfect book to engage your classroom with through analyzation and raising questions of what they believe will happen next.

Kleven not only made this book enjoyable for all ages, but showed the value of friendship.  I think students would enjoy designing their own piñata to "mash and smash and break and watch the candy fall!"

"There's nothing like a wedding, and this book about a wedding is not like any other..." Maya, the flower girl, shows us the view of her cousin's wedding through her lens.  This fun story depicts the wedding from the view of a child's photographs.  The excitement is shared from the flowers in her hair to the alter boy's dirty sneaker peeking from his robe to the kiss that lasted longer than Maya wanted to look.  Maya did not leave a single detail out.

Gary Soto did a wonderful job sharing a child's perspective of a wedding by leaving his readers smiling at the accuracy.  Stephanie Garcia, the illustrator, used three dimensional clay figures, to portray Maya's pictures.  

I think this book is perfect for students to compare and contrast various experiences they have had at weddings.  Maya and her family come from a Mexican background providing a diverse culture for students to understand as well.  Snapshots from the Wedding is a great book for all ages! "It was a wedding to remember."