Guacamole; A cooking poem by Jorge Argueta and Margarita Sada

One day over at Jama Ratigan's fabulous blog, Alphabet Soup, I entered one of her drawings and I won!
I almost missed my opportunity to win this book because I missed her email message to me and she nicely emailed me a second time.  Thank you Jama!

Groovy Girl and I were both home when the post person brought the package from House of Anansi Press with this very green poetry food book inside the yellow bubble wrapper.  We actually sat down in the grass and read it right away.

The first thing you notice are the gorgeous illustrations that show the young children interacting playfully with the food. The second point is that the story is told bilingually with Spanish and English.  It begins:

"Today I'm going to make you guacamole,"
I say to my mother and father
and my little brother and sister.
They stare at me with their big eyes
that remind me of the green avocados
in the basket on the red kitchen table. (1)

and it continues with vivid colors and words used to describe the process of making a delicious bowl of guacamole!  I adore how this young chef sings and dances around the kitchen with her apron on.  She continues with:

I wash them in the fountain of the sink
and then, dancing and singing,
I put them on the red kitchen table. (6)

This is a treasure of a book for the kitchen or the library.  It is a celebration of food and fun and this young girl celebrates the simple process of making a family tradition.  I think I'm going to add it to my school library collection but I'm not ready to part with it at home yet.  I am waiting for some beautiful avocados to slide my way so I can give this recipe a try. Thanks again to Jama for offering such a great poetry giveaway!