Maria was feeling very grown-up on Christmas Eve as she helped her mother prepare the tamales for Christmas dinner. When she slipped her mother's diamond ring onto her finger, she only meant to wear it for a minute. But suddenly, the ring was gone, and there were 24 tamales that just might contain the missing ring. "A warm family story that combines glowing art with a well-written text to tell of a girl's dilemma."--School Library Journal, starred review.
Maria is feeling so grown-up, wearing her mother's apron and helping to knead the masa for the Christmas corn tamales. Her mother even let Maria wear some perfume and lipstick for the big family celebration that evening. When her mother takes off her diamond ring so it won't become coated with the messy masa, Maria decides that life would be perfect if she could wear the ring, too. Trouble begins when she sneakily slips the sparkly ring on her thumb and resumes her kneading. Uh oh. It is not until later that night, after all the tamales have been cooked and after all her cousins and relatives have arrived, that Maria suddenly realizes what must have happened to the precious ring. Ed Martinez's warm oil paintings celebrate the riches of South American Christmas colors--adobe reds, dusty gold, lacey whites, and rain-forest greens. Martinez also has a gift for capturing children's animated expressions, especially when Maria begs her cousins to help her find the missing ring by secretly eating the enormous stack of steaming tamales! Gary Soto's delightful Christmas-spirit closure will relieve young readers who empathize with the negligent Maria. Grown-ups, too, will appreciate this playful reminder about the virtues of forgiveness and family togetherness. (Ages 4 and older) --Gail Hudson
Customer Reviews:
Avg. Customer Rating: 5.0 / 5.0
Great story!:
I echo the review from "A Customer".
In addition...
I'm a preschool teacher and the kids definitely understood the story. It's a great addition to a multi-cultural program and can open up conversation about culture.
As for the book, I enjoyed the illustrations!
My daughter loves this book!:
I bought this book for my three year old daughter. She absolutely loved the story. Now when she plays in her kitchen she makes me homemade tamales. :-)
Starting our own tradition:
Our family loves this book! We checked it out from our local library and soon it was my four year old daughter's favorite. When December rolled around, I checked it out again, bought tamale makings and my four year old and I made cheese tamales. We took them to her pre-school class for snack along with the book. Her teacher read the book to the class and then they all had the tamales that my daughter and I made. It was a huge hit!! Now that she is in kindergarten, we will do it again (I am buying the book... more info
My childhood revisited:
I love this story because it brings back memories of when my family would get together at Christmas time to make the annual batch of tamales. Everyone was involved and when all the work was done, we couldn't wait until they were ready to eat. The story is well told and my students look forward to hearing the story year after year.
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