Bibliography
Kimmel, E. A. 2009. The Three Little Tamales. Ill. by Valeria Docampo. Las Vegas, NV: Two Lions. ISBN 9780761455196
Plot Summary
This tale is a great southwestern twist to the traditional tale of “The Three Little Pigs”. As a runaway tortilla passes through the restaurant of Tia Lupe and Tio Jose, it convinces three tamales to run away before they are eaten. As they each run and find a home for themselves, it isn’t long before Señor Lobo (the big bad wolf) comes along and finds them. He first arrives at the home of the first tamale and blows her “sagebrush casita” to pieces, but the tamale escapes and runs to hide with the second tamale. Not long after the first tamale, Señor Lobo arrives at the home of the second tamale. Just as he blew the first tamale’s home, Señor Lobo huffs and puffs until the “cornstalk casita” blows into pieces. The two tamales are able to escape and run to hide in the third tamale’s home. Shortly after, Señor Lobo arrives and is poked by the thorns of the cactus home, but Señor Lobo continues. He huffs and puffs but is unable to blow the “cactus casita” down. He then thinks to enter the home through the chimney, only to find out the three tamales has a pot of boiling water ready and trapped for Señor Lobo. Terrified with the idea of being made into “wolf tamales”, Señor Lobo runs out and escapes, never returning, which the three tamales celebrate with a festival.
Critical Analysis
The illustrations and language of the book represent some aspects of the Mexican culture. This is seen through the setting, characters, and language.
The illustrations show a Mexican-themed setting. The reader is first introduced to this setting at the beginning of the story with a Mexican restaurant. In this image of the restaurant, the illustration shows a colored pattern of the Mexican flag as the roof of the restaurant. The surrounding images share a bright yellow, green, and red color scheme with the colors of the restaurant and the clothes of the people at the restaurant. Throughout the story, the same color scheme of the pattern is shown.
The characters of this story also represent the Mexican culture. The main characters are tamales, and the supporting characters are tortillas and a wolf that resembles a coyote. As tamales and tortillas are featured foods of the Mexican culture, coyotes are also indicative of the Mexican desert setting. Furthermore, as the tamales are wearing sombreros at the end of the story, the men entering the restaurant are also seen wearing the same hats.
Also, the language within the story alternates between English and Spanish. As Spanish is the main language of the Mexican culture, the Spanish segments in the story further indicate the Mexican twist of this traditional tale.
Review Excerpt(s)
- Kirkus Reviews: "A flavorful addition to the folktale shelf that begs to be shared with a group" (May 20, 2010).
Connections
- This book can be used in a classroom lesson to compare and contrast with the story of “The Three Little Pigs”.
- This would be a great book for bilingual children/ students to read.
- The “The Runaway Tortilla” by Eric Kimmel is another great bilingual book with a Hispanic food main character.
Comments
Post a Comment