Too Many Tamales by Gary Soto, Ed Martinez (Illustrator)

From the Publisher

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.

Publishers Weekly

Snow is falling, preparations for a family feast are underway and the air is thick with excitement. Maria is making tamales, kneading the masa and feeling grown-up. All she wants is a chance to wear her mother's diamond ring, which sparkles temptingly on the kitchen counter. When her mother steps away, Maria seizes her opportunity and dons the ring, then carries on with her work. Only later, when the tamales are cooled and a circle of cousins gathered, does Maria remember the diamond. She and the cousins search every tamale--with their teeth. Of course the ring turns out to be safely on Mom's finger. Soto, noted for such fiction as Baseball in April , confers some pleasing touches--a tear on Maria's finger resembles a diamond; he allows the celebrants a Hispanic identity without making it the main focus of the text--but overall the plot is too sentimental (and owes a major debt to an I Love Lucy episode). Martinez's sensuous oil paintings in deep earth tones conjure up a sense of family unity and the warmth of holidays. The children's expressions are deftly rendered--especially when they are faced with a second batch of tamales. Ages 4-8. (Sept.)

Children's Literature

This story will have readers hungering for tamales. Maria is convinced that she has lost her mother's diamond ring while she was making tamales for the family's Christmas celebration. When her favorite cousins arrive she tells them her story and they eat all the tamales trying to find the ring. Everyone can identify with Maria's panic and the too-full tummies, but this also inspires children to share the way their own family celebrates holidays. The joyful paintings portray a loving Hispanic family. 1996 (orig.

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