I enjoyed the book “Arroz Con Leche” by Jorge Arguleta for a lot of reasons. First, this book is about a culture and the food that the author and his family makes. The book is in to a cooking series that takes recipes for classic Latin American dish, Arroz Con Leche, which translated means rice and milk. The book discusses a young boy who is a young cook and loves making and eating the rice pudding. This is an enjoyable book because of exposure to other traditions. This artist in particular, reflects a lot on his childhood and how he grew up. There is a conversation to be had with these books that can go in various directions outside of just food. Overall, I believe that this book does a great job of creating growth for children in a societal realm. ( )

“Arroz con leche” is a bilingual cooking poem that I loved! The poem talks readers through the story of a young boy learning how to make rice pudding with his mother. The creative twist gives students the opportunity to learn about Latin culture while reading poetry. This book also give students to opportunity to read it in English and Spanish, so it could be used in Spanish classroom. This poem also has a recipe at the end so readers can create the rice pudding just like the adult. The book indicates where adult help is needed during the recipe with a simple asterisk. This book is great for students grades 3 and up if students will be reading and cooking, but is great for any age to read. ( )

Charmingly illustrated with Fernando Vilela's minimal-palette woodblock prints, lyrical Spanish and English poetry delineates a simple recipe for rice pudding ("Salt stars and sugar snow/Are falling from your hand.") prepared by a boy and slurped by his family. Asterisks within the text indicate stages where adult participation or supervision is needed. ( )

Charmingly illustrated with Fernando Vilela's minimal-palette woodblock prints, lyrical Spanish and English poetry delineates a simple recipe for rice pudding ("Salt stars and sugar snow/Are falling from your hand.") prepared by a boy and slurped by his family. Asterisks within the text indicate stages where adult participation or supervision is needed. ( )

I absolutely love this book! I worked as a chef for years before teaching and have often thought of putting together some kind of cookbook. What a creative way to do it! I love that the author composes the cooking directions as poems and that he emphasizes the coming together of family around the culinary creation.

This is the first bilingual picture book I have read, and I see many opportunities for classroom use. A Spanish teacher with whom I work uses bilingual picture books with her middle school students in first year Spanish. Being able to compare sections of text allows learners to better identify words in another language. Also, in terms of the poetry, the composition of a piece that involves steps and procedures with a creative format is one that I would emulate with students in a language arts (not bilingual) classroom. An expository "task" I have had students do is to write steps for a recipe that they make at home, even something as simple as hot chocolate or a grilled cheese sandwich. Adding a poetic element to that assignment would make it even more complex and fun! ( )