When a farm girl starts cooking, all the animals want to help. The cow contributes milk, the hen offers eggs, and even the duck makes a special trip to the market. Key English words change to Spanish as the story builds to a delicious ending.
Featured in Volume XIII, Issue 2 of WOW Review.
- ISBN: 9781580892421
- Author: Vamos, Samantha
- Illustrator: López, Rafael
- Published: 2011 , Charlesbridge Pub Inc
- Themes: Animals, Helping, Making changes
- Descriptors: Americas, Bilingual, Early Years (ages 2-6), Folklore and Fairy Tales, Latinx in US, Primary (ages 6-9), United States
- No. of pages: 32
This lyrical story is based on nursery rhyme, “The House Jack Built”. It is a magical tale of how a young farm maiden, five animals, and a farmer, all contribute to the making of arroz con leche (rice pudding). As the story builds, different characters, ingredients, and items, are first introduced in English and then translated into Spanish. The story ends with the cazuela being finished and everyone celebrating.
This book was charming. I loved that the characters are introduced one at a time and the fact that the Spanish is slowly worked into the story. The sometimes unexpected contributions of the characters made it fun to read and appealing for young children. For example, the cow contributed the milk but the goat’s contribution was in churning the cream. A perk to this book is that there was a glossary of Spanish words at the back and a copy of the recipe for the rice pudding.