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 have heard so many great things about this book but I have never read it before. However, I know that Gary Soto is an amazing author and always has so much to bring to the table when he is writing a children's story. I think this book has a lot of interesting ideas going on in this book that would be great for children to read and learn about. I also know that children would enjoy this book because it seems like it is written in a very funny manor!
ReplyDeleteMmmm.. now I want tamales! This book is great to open the topic of family traditions as well as to be cautious wen handling very important things. I think a lot of kids, especially younger ones, tend to see things more casually even when they are dealing with fragile or priceless objects. You could have a discussion on caution with them after reading this book.
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