Written by Jorge Argueta
Illustrated by Margarita Sada
Guacamole is a story about a little girl who is
making guacamole for her family. The story is in English and Spanish, every
page has both languages which is great for bilingual students or students
trying to learn either Spanish or English. The book gives instructions on how
to make guacamole. The ingredients are: four avocados, two limes, salt and cilantro.
The little girl gives detail of how to go through each step and have fun with
it.
She first
puts on her apron, grabs her favorite bowl, then begins to cook. She cuts the avocados
in half and saves the skin and pit inside each of them to plant in the yard.
The pit will eventually grow into an avocado tree. She then smashes the
avocados together until they are smooth and adds the salt, cilantro and lime. The
little girl uses rich vocabulary to describe her experience while cooking. She
pretends the cilantro is a tree and says, "tear the leaves off your tree
one by one, and then add them to your avocado". She uses imagery to draw the
reader in. She makes cooking a fun activity instead of a chore. When the guacamole
is done, she has a picnic outside with her family with tortillas and beans and
of course, guacamole.
The
illustrator used a lot of green to show the healthiness of the recipe. She also
used a lot imagination. The little girl and her family live in an avocado
shaped house with bright bold colors all around. While cooking, the little girl
and her siblings are shrunk down; sliding down the avocados as if they are at a
playground and sitting in the sink and
getting wet while cleaning the cilantro. The illustrator made the experience of
following a recipe as fun as possible.
This
story would be great for children of any ethnicity to learn how to follow a
recipe. I would use this in a lesson by reading the story to the class then
asking them to write their own detailed recipe of something they enjoy cooking.
I would ask them to use enriched
vocabulary just like the little girl did. Afterwards, the students could
share their recipe to the class, so the students would get to learn about food
from different cultures and families.
I made Guacamole the other night and thought of your book talk on this book. This would be a wonderful book to get a child involved with learning to cook. Since there is no oven involved and minimum cutting it would be a perfect appetizer for a child to help with with. Although the recipe in there sounds a little bland, you could always spice it up.
ReplyDeleteWow, I'm sad that I missed this book talk. It seems so cute. I am seriously thinking about making guacamole now! I agree, this book is perfect for multicultural classrooms. I am interested in seeing the pictures in this book! I want to read it too.. :)
ReplyDeleteThis looks like an awesome book because it covers so many different topics. It can be used for bilingual classes, it is a multicultural book, it talks about foods that are healthy, it talks about the importance of family and it brings in the unique aspects of a recipe, which is my favorite part because I LOVE to cook! I think comparing cultures in terms of food is fun for students and I think you could use this book in a lesson plan if you are talking about Latino cultures and then compare foods from other cultures and see how they are different. I really want to read this book so I can see what else it has to offer!
ReplyDelete