School Library Journal Review
| PreS-Gr 1-A take on the traditional "Little Red Hen" story, this time with a Southwestern flavor. Little Red Hen is hungry for guacamole. She has all the makings for tortillas and beans in her cocina, but not for guacamole. When she tries to enlist her friends to help her gather the ingredients, Coati is busy "hanging out," Snake is "all tied up," Armadillo has "gotta jump," and Iguana is "busy basking." But they all promise to "help eat it when it's done, gallinita roja." As with the original story, when the guacamole is ready, everybody is eager to taste it, but "Holy Squawkamole!" they all holler. "That's a smokin' hot guacamole!" Little Red Hen has added a spicy red pepper, which they all enjoy. González's illustrations are colorful. The author includes a story on the origin of guacamole, and how the Aztecs first made it. There is one mistake, though: they could not have used cilantro as it is not a New World plant. The book also includes a recipe and glossary. VERDICT A fun and serviceable retelling that will work well as a read-aloud.-Lucia Acosta, Children's Literature Specialist, Princeton, NJ © Copyright 2019. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. |
Booklist Review
| Award-winning picture-book author Wood refreshes a classic folk tale with this Spanish language-inflected rendition in which Little Red Hen, or Gallinita Roja, craves fresh guacamole and needs help harvesting the ingredients. She asks her friends an armadillo, a snake, and an iguana for help, but they all refuse to assist (except in eating the guacamole). Without any assistance, she rightfully gets to choose what goes in her recipe, and she decides to add an unexpected ingredient: jalapeño. When the guacamole is ready, her unhelpful friends happily devour it, but they soon catch on to her trick once they realize how spicy Gallinita Roja's guacamole is. González's soft, bright illustrations feature pleasantly rounded creatures with expressive faces, and throughout Wood seamlessly integrates the unitalicized Spanish terms, which are all clear, thanks to contextual clues as well as a glossary. Other backmatter includes fun facts about the history of guacamole and a variety of recipes, including Gallinita Roja's. A nice book to pair with Roseanne Thong's Green Is a Chile Pepper (2014).--Vivian Alvarez Copyright 2019 Booklist |
