Peanuts, blueberries, corn, potatoes, tomatoes, and more-here is a luscious collection of haiku celebrating foods native to the Americas. Brimming with imagination and fun, these poems capture the tasty essence of foods that have delighted, united, and enriched our lives for centuries.
- ISBN: 9781584302711
- Author: Mora, Pat
- Published: 2007 , Lee & Low Books
- Themes: foods, Fruits, Haiku, Spanish, Vegetables
- Descriptors: Americas, Bilingual, Poetry, Primary (ages 6-9)
- No. of pages: 32
To partake in this book is a truly beautiful experience. Pat Mora leads us through the Americas by devoting a full page spread to each native food, in which she provides history of the food and its uses in its place of origin, interesting and fun facts, and invitations to the reader to join in the feast and the fun. Each food (presented alphabetically through the book) is accompanied by a haiku, which are at once whimsical, practical, mouth-watering and poetic. Rafael López, the illustrator, makes a splash on the pages to add to this delightful journey with rich, bright colors, scenes of the people and community where the food is native, and some fantastical and imaginative creations drawn out of the food’s qualities or locale. This book is worth reading simply for the aesthetic experience of being drawn into this lyrical and visually stimulating land of food, but it also provides the reader with much more – exploring history, culture and customs of people across the Americas. While most stories focus on one culture or location, this book does a wonderful job of uniting the Americas while celebrating the individual countries and regions of each food. I think children would be easily drawn to this book, and the potential is limitless for extension activities surrounding food, farming, culture, customs, recipes, writing haikus and children’s own stories.