Book Summary
The Three Little Tamales by Eric Kimmel is an imaginative retelling of the classic Three Little Pigs story. Set in Texas, illustrator Valeria Docampo’s vivid southwestern pictures bring the entertaining tale to life. When the three little tamales learn that they are soon to be eaten, they run away and build homes of sagebrush, cornstalks, and cactus. Señor Lobo comes around looking for a tasty meal, and the tamales have to come up with a plan to escape becoming dinner. The book also includes a glossary of the Spanish vocabulary that is sprinkled throughout the story.
Book Review
Natasha’s Rating: ★★★★
I picked up The Three Little Tamales on a whim because it made me nostalgic for my childhood. My dad’s side of the family is Puerto Rican, and one of my favorite dishes he would make was tamales with rice. Even now, any time I find tamales on a menu, that’s my automatic choice! Isn’t it funny how some foods can instantly transport you back to your childhood?
I admit, I also had some sneakier underlying motives for purchasing The Three Little Tamales: getting my daughter to try a new food. If you have a picky eater, you know the struggle! Eliana won’t eat red sauce on anything. Not even pizza. What kind of child is this?!
Guess what. Ten seconds after we closed the book, she turned to me and said, “Mommy, can we try tamales sometime?” I was astonished. Without any prompting or hints from her sneaky mom, my super picky eater voluntarily requested a completely new food that she had never heard of before. That’s the power of books, my friends!
Any book that gets my child to expand her food horizons gets a thumbs up from me!
Eliana’s Rating: ★★★★★
Once there were three little tamales. They had to run away so that nobody would eat them. So they ran very fast until they came to the place where they wanted to make their house. The big sister with the glasses had a great idea: she made a cactus house so that Seňor Lobo could not get in, but he could actually get in from the chimney! It actually pricked him and that made him slower. But the little tamale that made the house had another idea! They were going to try to make wolf tamales in a pot! But the wolf escaped. So then they had a little party because he ran away very fast and would never come back again.
It was very funny! The funniest part was when they tried to make wolf tamales. You can’t do that! I think everybody would like this book. When I read this book, I wanted to try tamales because I knew they were going to be good. So we went to Trader Joe’s and bought some, and mommy cooked them, and they were so delicious! I want to have them for dinner again sometime.
