I enjoyed the book “La Fiesta de las Tortillas” by Jorge Argueta for a lot of reasons. First, this book is about a day in which the Spirit of the Corn came into his family’s restaurant in El Salvador. The book was fun to read because it was a book that went back to a moment in the author’s life. The author has a personal connection with this text and it can pose as a relatable book to some students in the classroom. For other students, it allows them to take a step into the world of the author and see how his childhood was and the similarities and differences there are compared to how they live now. This book is a good book to have in the classroom for purposes of exposure and culture accessibility. Overall, I believe that this book does a great job of creating growth for children in an aspect not only to language, but culture as well. ( )

This book made me want tacos! This author did an excellent job at pulling the reader into the world of Koki and his aunts and cousins as they manage their family’s restaurant in El Salvador. In the story the “spirit of the corn” visits the restaurant causing a strange phenomenon which eventually leads into a celebration. The story is told through Koki’s perspective with attention to the detail of the smell of tortillas and the chatter of the restaurant as they make the food for the customers. An interesting aspect of this book is that it is bilingual. It has Spanish and English text on the same page so that children who read both languages can enjoy it. Another interesting feature in this book is the glossary. Along with the glossary it also has pictures to allow the reader to visually see what the terms are. The book shows the value of family and tradition in a culture that maybe different than the readers’. ( )

This is a great book, even if you do not speak Spanish. In the version of this story that I read, each page had the text in Spanish AND English, so readers could read both sides to work on their language skills! The plot had suspense as we waited to find out who the mysterious late-night tortilla maker was. The characters all seemed to have different and unique personalities. The grandmother was kind but curious and the aunt was sassy and hostile to find out who woke her up in the middle of the night by slapping tortillas! The illustrations matched the story perfectly and were bright and intriguing. I initially began reading the story in Spanish (which I am not fluent in) and the pictures definitely helped me to understand what was going on. Overall, the big idea of this story is that problems are best solved when working together, and sometimes the problem might never be solved, but that is okay! ( )