The Three Little Tamales by Eric Kimmel

THE THREE LITTLE TAMALES by Eric Kimmel

Bibliography:

Kimmel, Eric. 2009. THE THREE LITTLE TAMALES. Illus. Valeria Docampo. Seattle, WA: Amazon Children’s Publishing.

Summary: This story is a lot like the traditional three little pigs story but instead of pigs it has tamales.  The three little tamales are sitting on the windowsill cooling when they are told by a tortilla to run or be eaten! So the tortillas run off and each builds his or her own house.  The first builds a house out of sagebrush. The second builds a house out of cornstalks. The third tamale builds her house out of cactus.  Then Senor Lobo (the big bad wolf) comes and begins to blow their houses down.  As you can imagine the first two lose their houses quite easily.  They run to the third tamale and its strong cactus house saves them.

Critical Analysis: I love this story because, being from Texas, Tamales are a big part of everything my family does. (yum!) It is pretty much the exact same story as the three little pigs except for the change from pigs to tamales.  I especially like the fact that there is a lot of Spanish and Texas related terms used in the story.  Also, the illustrator made the pictures extremely bright and fun. The colors especially caught my attention.  

Review Excerpts:

·      Booklist: “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.”

·      School Library Journal: “The colorful artwork combines with a text brimming with humor and sound effects (Ay! Ay! Ay!) for a delightful parody sure to satisfy readers appetite for fun.”

Connections:

·      This book would be a great way to introduce variants of their favorite fairytales

·      There is a lot of Spanish in this book so it would be a great way to continuing their understanding of Spanish

·      Other books by this author:

o   Kimmel, Eric A. 2009. THE MCELDERRY BOOK OF GREEK MYTHS.

o   Kimmel, Eric A. 2008. LITTLE BRITCHES AND THE RATTLERS.

·      Other books like this:

o   Scieszka, Jon and Lane Smith.  1996.  THE TRUE STORY OF THE 3 LITTLE PIGS.

o   Lowell, Susan.  1992.  THE THREE LITTLE JAVELINAS.