This book is about a little girl, Ana, who explains a family tradition of making tamales for Christmas through the years. Each year of her life Ana explains what she will do to help make tamales and what her older sister will do. Each year Ana wishes she was as old as her sister so she can take on more responsibility. I like this book because at the end, when Ana is 18 years old she predicts that she will own her own tamale shop and instead of being jealous of her sister at this time, Ana says, "Who knows? Maybe my sister will come work for me." I think that was a cute twist on the book. I also like this book because it has the text in English and in Spanish. This is a great learning tool for young children learning either English or Spanish. The pictures in this book are very big and vivid, often taking up a whole page. I think this is important for the younger audience because it does a good job at providing the necessary imagery to go along with the text. ( )

This story is about Ana and her family making tamales for Christmas. She was finally old enough to help this year but as the years pass she was never quit old enough to be able to do what her older sister does. Ages 4-5 years old.

This a good book. Ana the little girl in this story is jealous of her bigger sister who shows off by doing more complex things when making Tamales. Ana wants to be like her older sister.She wishes that she can do what her bigger sister does..
Personal Reaction: This was an enjoyable book because it was bilingual. The culture of this book was Spanish. On each where where there was an English word the followed a Spanish word right behind it.

Class Extension: Ask the students to bring a multicultural book to class and share.
Ask them what changes would they make to this story.

This story was about a family that makes tamales every year around Christmas. It is a tradition for them and it informs the reader of how to make them. There is a bit of repetition in this book, which just adds to the story and makes it more fun. It also allows the reader to predict what is going to happen on the next page. An example of the repetition is when the author says, “I wish I was ___(fill in age here), so ___(fill in task here). She is jealous of her older sister who can do more cooking of the tamales then she can. As she continues to say how old she wishes to be, her sister gains in age too and can complete a new task as well. Throughout the story, the girl, Ana wants more responsibility when cooking tamales. I liked the repetition aspect of this story. It made it fun and exciting to predict the next part of the story. I think it would be good for younger kids who are learning to predict and using repetition to learn to read.
Another thing I liked about this book was the Spanish translations. Like many other multicultural books, this book included the passages in Spanish as well. I thought this was interesting because it helps readers learn there are many different languages out there. I also enjoyed the Spanish translations because I took Spanish in elementary, middle, and high school. I could understand some words but being able to read them and also have them in English helped me a lot. The big idea or message in this book is that one shouldn’t pass life by. Ana is wishing to be older and older without appreciating all that she gets to do at her current age of 6. It is important to live in the moment and appreciate what you have and what you are able to do because you may not be able to do it later in life. I think this is a very important message that all individuals should know, accept, and promote.
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In my opinion, this is a good book. The little girl Ana is always envious of her older sister Lidia, who is always able to do more complex cooking steps when making the tamales. Ana always wishes she could do what Lidia does, and dreams of the day she turns her sister’s age. For example, when Ana is six, her sister is eight and she is able to spread the dough. Ana says, “I wish I was eight so that my hands would be big enough to spread the dough just right”. Eventually Ana turns 18 and wants to start her own tamale business and deliver her tamales in her truck on Christmas. One of the reasons I enjoyed this book so much was because it was a bilingual book. The culture this book was based off of was Spanish culture, so on each of the pages the words were in English and in Spanish, which I thought was very interesting. The big idea of this book was don’t rush your youth. Ana always was thinking about what she could do if she were her sister’s age, and was never focused on and appreciated what she was able to do at her own age. ( )