Too Many Tamales-blog 1

Too Many Tamales by Gary Soto, Illustrated by Ed martinez

This is a very interesting book to read. It had comedy, humor and suspense with eye-catching illustrations. 

This book is contemporary realistic fiction since this is something that could actually happen.

The story teaches us that often solving or attempting to solve one problem can lead to needing to solve another. The answer is not always what it seems and that admitting mistakes upfront and quickly can save a lot of unnecessary work. Honesty is the best policy.

Too Many Tamales opens the door for many learning activities. There are multiple areas of problem solving, by class, group or individual. Students can look into alternate ways to find the missing ring. Did they have to eat the tamales? Working together as a team, was there other solutions?

This book is of South American heritage, gives us a look into how families of this culture spend holidays and how they support each other in time of need.

Galda, L. Cullinan,  B. E., & Sipe, L.R. (2010). Literature and the Child (7th ed.) Belmont, CA: Wadsworths, Inc.

Soto, Gary (1996). Too many Tamales, new York, NY: The Putnam & Gosset Group