The Three Little Tamales

Product Description While the three little tamales cool off on a windowsill, a tortilla rolls by. "You’ll be eaten. You’d better run!" he tells them. And so the tamales jump out the window. The first runs to the prairie and builds a house of sagebrush. The second runs to a cornfield and builds a house of cornstalks. The third runs to the desrt and builds a house of cactus. Then who should come along but Señor Lobo, the Big Bad Wolf, who plans to blow their houses down! Valeria Docampo’s oil-and-pencil illustrations add zest and humor to this rollicking southwestern version of a popular tale. From Booklist Tía Lupe and Tío José and their taquería in Texas are back, and this time Tía Lupe is making her famous tamales in this “Three Little Pigs” takeoff. The three tamales are encouraged to run for their lives by a runaway tortilla rolling by. Since the little tamales do not want to be eaten, they flee and seek safer places to live. The first tamale runs to a prairie where she builds a casita out of sagebrush. The second tamale builds his casita out of cornstalks. The third tamale finds herself in the desert where she builds a casita out of a cactus with prickly thorns. All is well with the tamales until Señor Lobo, the Big Bad Wolf, comes calling at their doorsteps, threatening to blow their casitas from “here to Laredo.” Docampo’s oil-on-paper illustrations add dimension to the story and bring the three little tamales to life. An excellent addition to collections of fairy-tale retellings. Grades K-3. --Shauna Yusko About the Author Author Eric A. Kimmel is well known for the tales he has retold from around the world. Some of his best-known titles are Hershel and the Hanukkah Goblins (a Caldecott Honor book), Gershon’s Monster, Anansi and the Talking Melon, and The Runaway Tortilla. A former professor of children’s literature, he lives in Portland, Oregon. Valeria Docampo is a graduate of the University of Buenos Aires with a degree in graphic design and visual communication. In 2008, she was one of thirty Argentinian artists whose work was exhibited at the international Bologna Children’s Book Fair.