Too Many Tamales
Written by Gary Soto
Illustrated by Ed Martinez
Reviewed by Claudia M. (age 8)
The book is about a girl who took her mother?s ring without her mother knowing while they were making tamales together. While she was squashing the mesa, she lost the ring. Her and her cousins were all looking for the ring in the tamales, so they all ate them. They got tired of eating them. On the last one they all had a big belly and they felt like throwing up. She was scared to go to her mother and tell her about the ring but she saw her mother had the ring! Her mom had scraped the mesa off of it. She still felt like crying. She had to make another batch of tamales. Then everyone had a good laugh, even Maria and her cousins.
I loved the book because of the part when Maria and her cousins ate all the tamales at the end because everybody?s bellies got big. That was my favorite part. I also liked when she saw her mother with her ring because that is a happy ending to the story. But the part that I didn?t like was when she was about to cry because she was so disappointed because she ate the tamales for nothing. Her mother had the ring the whole time. My favorite character is Maria because she was the star of the book. The illustrations were very pretty. This book is different than any other book I?ve read because sometimes the other books that I read are all the same. If I was Maria, I?d feel embarrassed at the end because she had to make another batch of tamales.
I recommend this book to anybody who loves tamales because the book has beautiful pictures of tamales and it makes you hungry. All mothers would enjoy this book because of what Maria did and how she cared about her mom and her ring. I also recommend this book to all people because it has a happy and funny ending.