Book Critiques: Karen Massey-Cerda

a. Title: Lon Po Po (A Red Riding Hood Story from China) b. Author: Ed Young c. Publisher: Penguin Putnam Books. Published: 1989 d. Caldecott Medal 1990

Question1: What elements of the author’s style and language drew you into the book? Explain and give examples.

This Chinese version of Red riding Hood features three daughters who are left at home when their mother

leaves to visit their grandmother. Lon Po Po the granny wolf arrives pretending to be their grandmother.

Shang, the eldest child, asks why ‘she’ comes so late and why her voice is so low but the wolf finds

excuses and the two younger siblings let the wolf in. He blows out the candles so they cannot see him. He

pretends to be sleepy so they all go to bed. Despite the children feeling his tail and claws, he again makes

excuses. Shang then catches sight of his snout and plans to trick him, persuading him to let them climb up

a tree for gingko nuts for him. Once in the tree Shang reveals the truth to her sisters. They then lure the

wolf into a basket and pull him up into the tree. They drop him repeatedly until he dies from the fall.

The author’s style and language draws the reader into the book initially with the book dedication; ‘To all

wolves of the world for lending their good name as a tangible symbol of our darkness’. Beside this is a

stunning, yet frightening blue and yellow water color of the shadowy outline of a grandmother. It is

layered with the blue haze of a wolf’s face, white circular eyes staring hauntingly out at the reader. This

unique choice of quote and illustrative style draws the reader in. You immediately feel cloaked by the

wolf’s eerie presence, and wonder where in the shadows he will appear next.

The author’s translated text is simple yet it fits beautifully, almost softly in and over the contrastingly

fearful, paneled illustrations. The violent ending is eloquently told: ‘Not only did the wolf bump his head,

but he broke his heart to pieces’.

The author’s illustrative style draws you into the book. It conveys the mood and bite of the story, using

beautiful watercolors with pastels. There are few fixed outlines, leaving the readers imagination to shift

and move along with the illustrations. The first scene has an image of the wolf incorporated into the

landscape. You see the mother leaving her children. The land beneath her is shaped like a wolf’s nose; the

house is its eye and the second panel, the back of its large head. This imagery is repeated as the children

are persuading the wolf to come outside and climb for the gingko nuts. The outline of the wolf’s head is

muted and blended to become part of the sky and the clouds. The constantly shifting illustrations and flow

of text succeed to hypnotize the reader as you look and read through the shadows in the story.

The author’s style of using three pictures sequences throughout most of the book is a formal contrast to

the realistic and abstract watercolor illustrations. Their shifting quality , almost like clouds morphing to

form pictures, appear to change form as if they need the constraints of the panels to remain on the page.

Two of the most striking paneled pages that work simultaneously with the text to convey the frightening

presence of darkness are before the children admit the wolf into their home. The use of paneling directs

the reader’s attention to text and the focal point of each illustration. ‘My little jewels’ states the wolf, ‘this

is your grandmother, your Po Po’. We see the girls frightened eyes juxtaposed with Lon Po Po’s

menacing eyes and swirling blue cloak wrapped around him.

The author’s style evokes genuine fear in the reader, when the children are cuddled up with their

‘grandmother’ in bed. The wolf menacingly declares ‘All the chicks are in the coop’ referencing the

predatory nature of wolves. We see the haunting image of his head looming over the three children.

The author’s use of perspective in the middle scenes conveys to the reader the height of the tree that the

children climb. The text is positioned to the right of the scene. This perspective also reflects the isolation

of the wolf and the shift in the battle of wits between the characters which draws the reader in further as

they journey with the sisters towards their victory over the wolf.

a. Title: Rapunzel b. Author: Paul O’Zelinskyc. Publisher: Dutton Children’s Books, New York. Published: 1997 d. Caldecott Medal 1998

Question 3: Describe the artwork in terms of style and media. What elements of the illustrations appealed to you?

Zelinsky’s illustrated edition of the classic fairy tale Rapunzel utilizes spectacular oil paintings, rich with

color and light. His renaissance style paintings reflect an almost golden light and equal amount of shadow,

echoing Rapunzel and the darkness of the sorcerer.

The illustrations are visually appealing to the reader because of the elements of rich layers and detail that

Zelinsky incorporates into each scene. The text is simple but elegant, enriched with words such as

‘luxuriant’ and ‘wretched’. Entire Tuscan scenes are created, vivid with color. Rapunzel is painted with

flowing, raven hair, reminiscent of Botticelli’s paintings. There is incredible detail used to paint the Italian

gardens, its statues and vines at the beginning of the tale. The reader can absorb a rich canvas of deep

reds, oranges, blues and greens as Zelinsky recreates the ornate pattern and texture of cloth, tile, rug and

medieval clothing. Rapunzel’s Italian bell tower is itself an intricate painting of stripes, diamonds inlayed

with pattern, marble pillars and tulip shaped peaks.

The renaissance style of the artwork is appealing because the complex detailing and layering serves also

to convey the deep feelings between characters and within the scene itself. Each illustration is alive with

rage, jealousy, grief and of course love. When the prince climbs up into the tower, the light painted

creates warmth and we see detail that portrays the tenderness felt between him and Rapunzel. This is

juxtaposed with the truly frightening painting of the sorcerer who ‘in a rage, seized the braids and coils of

Rapunzel’s silky hair and sheared them off’. The violence is palpable as the reader sees her cut

Rapunzel’s hair, the fury etched into her face by the illustrators brush strokes. Rapunzel is painted holding

her head in her hands, eyes closed in grief.

The author uses perspective in his next painting to convey the ‘wild country’ that the sorcerer sends

Rapunzel too. We see a vast, layered barren landscape and a tiny figure in a blue dress, a tiny speck sitting

on a rock, lost and alone.

The art work appeals because the illustrations are stories unto themselves. There is much to marvel at that

would encourage a reader to spend time there discussing the details. A child could happily study the

details, especially in the scene showing Rapunzel as a child dancing before her new ‘mother’ and the

peacock. A child could ‘read’, through book talk, the joy and happiness of the reunion between Rapunzel

and her prince, two children, a cat and a toad!

The care and detail taken by the illustrator is evident in his notes at the back of the book about Rapunzel.

They reveal the research he discovered about the fairy tale-that it came from an oral source, a story

printed in Naples that was from a local folk story. He states that he wanted to ‘combine the most moving

aspects of the story with the most satisfying structure and to bring out its mysterious internal echoes’. The

art work succeeds in depicting this combined hope beautifully.

a. Title: Joseph had a Little Overcoat b. Author: Simms Taback c. Publisher: The Penguin Group. Published: 1999 d. Caldecott Medal Winner

Question 10: How might you include this book in the social studies, science or mathematics curriculum? Write about a specific activity you might do that relates to the content of this book.

Based on a Yiddish folk song this story, Joseph’s overcoat becomes worn and he makes it into a jacket.

When the jacket also becomes old and worn a vest is made out of it, then a scarf. This thriftiness

continues until Joseph has nothing left of his original overcoat. The story concludes with Joseph making

something out of nothing – actually the very story we are reading.

The collage in this book combines mixed media, real photographs and ink and watercolor. Characters are

drawn in a slightly cartoonish way. Every part of the background is crammed with details and grouping of

items. Clothing shaped die cuts are cleverly used to show the sequence of transformations that Joseph’s

overcoat goes through. Young readers would enjoy spending time looking for new and hidden items and

details on each page as they try and determine what lies behind the cut out.

Although this book lends itself to the science based topic of recycling, I would include this book as part of

the kindergarten mathematics curriculum that explores the skills of classifying and sorting by their own

and given criteria. Children can look back over the book’s pages that are intended to develop these very

skills. Many of the pages show items and types of object either grouped or ungrouped. Children could

first discuss what makes the objects, people in each group alike and different.

A follow up math activity would involve the children using scrap material and various shaped colored

buttons with differing number of holes, collage pictures from magazines, and farm animals reflecting the

groups in the book. The children could work on pairs initial to sort the items practically into groups by a

given criteria such as by color to begin to develop these important classifying skills. Students would then

be encouraged to sort and classify using their own sorting criteria. For example with the buttons they

could sort them by color, shape and number of holes. With the scrap material they could sort by size or

pattern. The items chosen for this classifying activity could then be grouped and glued down on

construction paper and labeled according to their sorting or classifying rule. The farm animals could be

used as an extension activity with the whole class to begin to discuss how two farm animals are alike or

different, extending their mathematical vocabulary.

a. Title: Flotsam b. Author: David Wiesner c. Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Company. Published: 2006 d. Caldecott Medal Winner

Question 7: Respond to the design and layout of the book. What do you think of the cover design, size of the book, font, spacing and visual elements?

While digging for crabs, a wave sweeps a boy off his feet and deposits an underwater camera on the sand

in front of him. After he recovers, he has the film developed, puts another film in and is captivated by

what he finds in the photographs. Having taken his own photos, he ultimately tosses the camera back into

the sea where it is carried away by various creatures until it again washes ashore for anew child to find.

The title is given a definition if you look under the dust cover enticing the reader in with ‘a shared

discovery’. The inside cover conveys to the reader an attention to detail as we see the title flotsam on

worn beach wood, surrounded by a plethora of reclaimed items from the sea, each with its own store to

tell.

The cover design of this wordless picture book reflects the authors fascination with what comes before

and after a picture. We see a close up watercolor of the eye of a fish. A camera and other fish are

concavely reflected back to the reader in its black eye; almost as if it is a porthole of a ship. The author

immediately encourages the reader, like the boy to look carefully from every possible angle and at details

to determine what you are actually viewing.

The layout of Weisner’s story frames are set up like a comic book. They shift perspective constantly from

close ups to landscape views. Some are broad scenes, whilst others are tightly boxed sequences. These

visual elements effectively create drama and motion to the story as well as echoing the types of choice for

photographic frames.

The author skillfully blends realism and fantasy within his story frames to create different tones. The

beachside pages are wistful and have an old fashioned look about them with cool blues and white for their

palette. These scenes are fairly sparse but still have detail. The beach scenes are frequently framed and

laid out as a series of smaller pictures set on the same large page. We see the full page water color of the

boy recovering from the crashing wave and staring at the old fashioned Melville camera. The next page is

a series of short frames that show him holding the camera, a close up of his hands and the camera and his

examination of it.

The size of the book and the direction that it has is reminiscent of a photo album that you are looking

through and sharing memories.

Humor is captured perfectly in the seven narrow images showing the boy waiting impatiently at the one

hour photo. The scenes succeed to show the boys curiosity and wonder. The reader can follow every one

of his movements.

The underwater photos are more colorful, wider in frame and more whimsical. They are very detailed

demanding close attention from the reader as you explore fantastical mechanical fish, gigantic starfish

with islands on their backs and giant turtles bearing shell cities. Weisner uniquely captures the

imagination and the idea of this hidden underwater world that is visually appealing to the reader.

His stunning underwater illustrations invoke humor with the blending of realism and fantasy. To the left

of a scene we see the boy holding a photograph of octopuses sitting in armchairs. To the right we are

shown the shift in perspective, after the photograph, a large detailed picture of octopuses reading to their

children. The reader will undoubtedly be entertained with the electric eels working as light bulbs, and an

underwater fish bowl with fish casually swimming in and out. One of the final underwater scenes shows a

spotted fish wearing a collar around its non-neck with the name tag ‘spot’. Tiny underwater aliens

wearing bubble helmets, bowing down to sour faced sea horses are hilarious scenes for the reader.

The visual elements of scale and perspective, the before and after of each photograph used by the author

create depth to his images. There is a girl holding a picture of a boy, holding a picture of a boy, holding a

picture of a girl, and so on. The boy takes out his microscope and we see a chain of images of children

through time. A child from the 1980s is holding a picture of a child from the 1970s. Then we are in the

50s, 40s, 30s and finally a sepia photograph of a boy in the 1900s wearing old fashioned clothing, waving

at the camera. Each perspective delightfully and meaningfully shows who has found the camera over the

century.

a. Title: Owl Moon b. Author: Jane Yolen. Illustrator: John Schroenherr c. Publisher: Philomel Books, New York. Published: 1987 d. Caldecott Medal Winner

Question 8: How did the author make the story believable? Were you able to relate to the characters in any way?

This picture book introduces the reader to a young girl, her father and the night they went out to hopefully

call an owl and have it respond to them. Told in the first person we journey with then as they trek through

the snowy forest. They pass various animals in the shadows and there is an air of excitement as ‘Pa’

imitates the owls call once without answer and then again with a response. The reader then sees an owl

looking at the girl and her father. It then flies off and the girl states ‘I was a shadow as we walked home’.

The author makes the story believable because she bases the story and setting on real ‘owling’ that her

husband frequently took their children on near their Massachusetts home. Owling is also a ‘familiar

pastime’ to naturalist writer and illustrator John Schoenherr. The farm depicted within the beautiful blue

and black shadowed watercolors is the Schoenherr farm with its red out buildings. The dust cover

indicates that the landmarks and trees depicted in his illustrations are those that he and his family have

walked by on many a winter night looking for the owl. Such images serve to make the story believable.

The ‘owling’ adventure is made all the more realistic and believable with the harmony of text and

illustrations. The text is gentle and full of poetic elements. It reads much like a poem. The author takes the

images she creates beyond just what we typically visualize. She creates three dimensional images in the

readers mind. The opening page states ‘The trees stood still as giant statues, and the moon was so bright

the sky seemed to shine’. She beautifully describes how the shadows ‘stained the white snow’. Her

imagery created through text makes the reader feel every part of the adventure, the silence ‘as quiet as a

dream’. We shiver with the girl as she states ‘I could feel the cold, as if someone’s icy hand was palm

down on my back’. The onomatopoeia used by her father makes the forest walk more intense with his cry

of ‘Whoo-whoo-who….’. At the center of the clearing that they come to the author describes it as having

‘snow whiter than the milk in a cereal bowl’.

The illustrations truly bring all of this created imagery to life. He depicts a bowl shaped clearing, half in

moonlight, some in shadow. Deriving much from his personal experience and setting, the illustrator

creates an authentic experience and the perfect mood for this simple yet magical tale. Initially the

illustrator cleverly creates a setting from the owl’s perspective as we see a small farm from high in the

sky, two small figures walking in the snow. The illustrations create a quiet that is palpable to the reader as

we are carried along with the characters feet crunching in the snow. Later, the painted shadows, moonlit

snow and the small animals truly enhance the story and deepen the believability of event, characters and

their emotions.

The two page spread of the owl is majestic and believably conveys the culmination of anticipation in the

story. The watercolor is intense as the owl looks down upon the child and her Pa. The girl says ‘I know

then I could talk, I could even laugh out loud’.

The poetic text and evocative illustrations succeed in creating a believable communion with nature, as

well as conveying the excitement and magic of a seemingly ordinary experience.

I could certainly relate to the value of having a childhood memory formed around a shared experience

with a parent. The author is writing from the child within her, and it makes me think about quiet walks

taken as a child with my family at home on the Isle of Wight. They were often on the beach or through

bluebell woods and Brighstone forest near our home. These were, like the owling walk, simple activities.

However, I recall the excitement, hope and anticipation, as the girl felt, of what you might find hiding in

the woods, or in a beach rock pool along the way. Such memories last a lifetime.

a. Title: Beautiful Blackbird b. Author: Ashley Bryan c. Publisher: Atheneum Books for Young Readers. Published: 2003

Question 11: What values were conveyed through this book? How were these values or social views conveyed to the reader?

This retelling of a traditional African tale of the IIa speaking people of Zambia is set in a time long ago.

Here all the birds of Africa are brightly colored, only blackbird wears the color black. The other birds

thought that blackbird was the most beautiful because his color included all the colors under the sun, so

they ask him to make a blackening brew to mark them with his beautiful black. Blackbird agrees to paint

them black, but states, ‘Just remember, whatever I do, I’ll be me and you’ll be you’. Pleased with their

new marking s the beautifully decorated birds sing a song celebrating blackbird and the color black.

The values conveyed through this book focus on the message ‘color on the outside is not what’s on the

inside’. This self affirming message is one that is important to all races not only African Americans.

The author uses a rhythmic chanting text as the collective voice to convey to the reader that all living

creatures are beautiful. He states with rhyme and repetition ‘Beak to beak, peck to peck, spread your

wings, stretch your neck’. The birds continue ‘Black is beautiful, uh huh’. The blackbird responds ‘Color

on the outside is not what’s on the inside. You don‘t eat like me. You don’t get down in the groove and

move your feet like me’.

Bryans colorful paper collage cut outs jump off the page and simultaneously works with the text to share

the social views of being proud of who you are and to embrace your culture. He overlaps many of the bird

cut outs to make them seem three dimensional. There is little background detail to take away from the

colorful birds that dramatize the action. Using scissors that were his mother’s to create this artwork, the

social views of taking pride in ones individuality and unique beauty are powerfully conveyed through this

choice of media.

a. Title: Selkie b. Author: Gillian McClure c. Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York. Published: 1999

Question 4: Describe the setting. Was the setting essential to the plot of the book? Explain why or why not.

This picture book tells the tale of a boy Peter who makes friends with a young selkie (a shape-shifter who

can transform from a seal to a girl by taking her sealskin off). Unlike the greedy oysterman who captures

the selkie and imprisons her so that he can force the language of the sea from her to make himself rich, the

boy appreciates and befriends her and in the end receives a gift freely given. He has the language of the

sea to always lead him safely back to shore.

The legend of the selkie derives from the Orkney Islands that lie off the coast of Scotland. Perhaps the

author visited these islands because in keeping with the legend she creates a setting that is isolated and

mysterious. The setting is Seal Island, painted in beautiful blues and greens of the sea. The luminous

illustrations transport the reader to a setting that is haunting and eerie.

The setting serves initially to show the distance and danger of Seal Island that piques Peter’s curiosity. It

is painted in the distance, grey and misty surrounded by the flat sand seen at low tide. Plot movement is

achieved through the setting, showing the repetitious journey of the oysterman ‘lifting his sticks, one by

one, with the sea coming in behind him. The setting is important because it has a feel of another time and

place when legends such as that of the selkie could well be possible. Characters are dressed in old

fashioned clothing, and we see sparse fisherman’s cottages as well as horses pulling the oysterman’s cart

full of baskets and nets.

The setting shifts to the eerie green rock pools of Seal Island where Peter spends time with the mysterious

selkie. The setting is essential to the plot because it enhances the selkie legend allowing the reader to see

her transformation from seal to girl and deepen our understanding about the fascination she holds over

people, good and bad. Without the watery setting we would not see her transformation. The setting

provides a means with which the reader can understand the moral of the story –the ‘language of the sea’

and how it cannot be used for ill gain as the oysterman longs for. It also highlights a strong tale of

friendship between Peter and the selkie who is bravely rescued from the oysterman’s nets by Peter.

a. Title: And the Dish Ran Way with the Spoon b. Author: Janet Stevens and Susan Stevens Crummel c. Publisher: Harcourt Inc. Published: 2001

Question 1: What elements of the author’s style and language drew you into the book? Explain and give examples.

This highly entertaining and witty picture book begins with a page from another book, and the rendition

of the traditional rhyme ‘hey, diddle, diddle’. ‘Everybody up! They didn’t come back’ write the authors

on the next page. The reader is taken into the pages of the ‘book’ and we hear the voice of the cat trying to

rouse a reluctant cow and dog. Here we see these familiar characters exit their original format and begin a

new story, undergoing transformations. We discover a laughing dog, who is actually grumpy and an

extremely lethargic cow. This change in perspective immediately draws the reader in enticing you to

speculate about what happens when dish and spoon do not return. As cat delightfully points out ‘Without

dish and spoon, there’s no rhyme. No more diddle diddle. It’s over’. Cow and dog offer alternate endings

to the rhyme: ‘the cow took a nap until noon’ or ‘and the little dog bit a baboon’ but cat offers one of the

many puns of the text and tells then ‘to stop fiddling around’.

The author’s language draws you into the book with their clever choice of narrative. They write additional

rhyming stanzas to go with the original rhyme, to tell the rest of the story. The text states ‘so, off went the

three with a hey diddle diddle dee, by the light of the silvery moon….to bring back the dish and the

spoon’.

The visual treats in this book begin first when the three friends literally meet a ‘fork in the road’, dressed

in a Hawaiian shirt and wearing sunglasses. He has seen dish and spoon pass by and offers to ‘take a stab’

at drawing a map to help them.

The humor and word play that you derive from the map and indeed the entire book is largely dependent

upon the reader’s level of book language. The authors assume the reader is familiar with a wide range of

fairy tales and nursery rhyme characters. The map has a key showing ‘dark forest’, ‘not so dark forest’, a

regular mile and underneath ‘a crooked mile’ drawn as a zig zag line. With strong book language, you are

drawn into this book on a hilarious ride.

The authors use multiple characters from other stories with again, their afterhour’s story or different

perspective, as part of the plot. Using the map they visit Miss Muffet’s house where they find a regretful

creepy spider sympathizing with their runaway ‘Yeah, I have the same problem with Muffet, I try to be

nice, even sit down beside her. Then pffft! Gone, every time’.

Lively, detailed illustrations with funny facial expressions are elements that add further appeal for the

reader. On visiting the wolf the characters are surprised and dismayed when they meet him, complete with

pink rabbit slippers. He has a red cloak and a sheep’s suit hanging on his coat rack. Here the reader is

given the enjoyment of multi layered meaning.

Having finally found spoon and the pieces of the dish at the bottom of a giant beanstalk, they visit ‘Jack’s

Repair Shop’, with the amusingly titled ‘you blew it, I glue it’ where we see blind mice walking around in

need of their tails reattached. The rhyme is ultimately resumed in the book with one revision ‘And the

dish stayed at home with the spoon’.

a. Title: Snowflake Bentley b. Author: Jacqueline Briggs Martin. Illustrator: Mary Azarian c. Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston. Published:1998

Question 6: What factual information did you learn? Did anything surprise you? How do you know if this information is accurate?

This beautiful biography tells the true story of a Vermont farm boy who was fascinated by snowflakes. It

is the story of Wilson A. Bentley (1865-1931) of Jericho, Vermont. Having developed a technique for

photographing snowflakes, he spent many years collecting, studying and lecturing about them. He even

wrote a book titled ‘Snow Crystals’.

You learn that he only attended school for a few years, having spent the first fourteen years with his

mother as his teacher. Bentley is quoted as saying ‘She had a set of encyclopedia’s, I read them all’. He

was an avid studier of ice crystals and moisture as well as carrying out many experiments with raindrops.

The reader learns that most crystals have six branches (though a few have three), with no one design

being repeated.

The layout of the book includes rectangular side bar panels with falling snowflakes which highlight

biographical information about ‘Willie’ and his life. The text is lyrical as it states ‘snow was as beautiful

as butterflies, or apple blossoms’. The illustrator uses woodcuts and watercolors to share with the reader

Bentley’s life. Vermont winters and country life are also skillfully captured.

The reader learns that Bentley’s parents spent their entire savings to buy the camera so that Bentley could

photograph snowflakes. Beside the illustration of the camera we learn that it made images on glass

negatives and that its microscope could magnify a tiny crystal from ‘sixty four to 3,600 times its actual

size’. Bentley’s photographs were bought by colleges and universities along with artists who used them to

inspire their own work.

What surprised me about this book is the discovery of the life of a man I had never heard of before or read

about. I was amazed that his parents spent all of their savings on the camera. It was wonderful to read

about two parents supporting Bentley’s passion. The book highlighted his patience and curiosity for

nature and how he continued to be a farmer whist continuing his beloved work. The explanation about

Willie’s trial and error experiments with his camera were unusual facts. There is a great deal of detail

given about the formation of a snowflake, from a tiny speck to its crystal branches growing. It was

surprising to read that the number of branches is determined by the amount of air, cold and moisture and

demonstrates the uniqueness of each one.

The final page is a treat, showing a real life photograph of him and three of his original snowflake

photographs. I only wish there had been more of them in the book with the highlighted facts. The

information about snowflakes clearly has been proven with evidence of published work and real examples

of his photographs and his actual camera.

The information appears accurate in the book because the text and illustrations are mixed with real facts

about Bentley and his life. The real life quotes sprinkled throughout the book vividly bring this biography

to life in an accurate and fascinating way.

a. Title: Too Many Tamales b. Author: Gary Soto. Illustrator: Ed Martinez c. Publisher: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, New York. Published: 1993

Question 12: Do you think the culture of the characters in the book was portrayed fairly? How do you know? What experiences did the author bring that would help him or her represent the culture fairly?

This is a Christmas story that features a Hispanic family. It is also a tale about why it is better to tell the truth than

to panic and try and cover up the problem. In the story a girl named Maria helps her mother prepare Tamales for the

family meal. When her mother leaves the kitchen for a few minutes she tries on her mother’s ring. Later after all her

family has arrives, Maria realizes that the ring is missing. She panics and gets her cousins to eat all of the tamales

with her trying to find the ring. When they find nothing Maria realizes that she has to confess to her mother who

has been wearing the ring all along. As the family begins to make another batch of Tamales Maria learns to laugh at

herself and her predicament.

The culture of the characters in this book is portrayed fairly accurately because the author and illustrator base this

picture book on their cultural experiences. This basis brings a fair representation of the culture of the characters.

The illustrator states at the back of the book that he was born in Argentina and the author is Hispanic.

Family life and its importance in Mexican culture are able to be represented fairly by the author’s description of the

family making the tamales and kneading the ‘masa’.

The illustrations are rich in South American colors and manage to portray the culture of the characters in terms of

family and the love they share. This is especially evident in the way the Illustrator captures the characters warmth

and bond in the facial expressions painted. Martinez's beautiful oil paintings in deep earth tones conjure up a

sense of family unity and the warmth of holidays. We see traditional plates and dishes displayed in the

kitchen and the tamales are painted with such texture they succeed in being very realistic. The children's

expressions are deftly rendered--especially when they are faced with a second batch of tamales.

This is a warm story that shows the spirit of family and traditions through the eyes of the Hispanic

culture. Interestingly, the illustrations seem to reflect a Mexican American family that have assimilated

with much of the American way of life in terms of clothing worn and Christmas traditions, whilst

simultaneously maintaining their own culture through food, and family life. This is perhaps a reflection of

the lives of the author and illustrator who have lived in American for quite some time and have acquired

this balance of the two cultures in their own lives.