Tortillas y Concioncitas

by Lynn Reiser, Corazones Valientes (Illustrator)

Overview

A little girl basks in the everyday love of her great-grandmother, grandmother, and mother in this bilingual (English and Spanish) and multigenerational picture book celebration.

“A vibrantly illustrated, bilingual picture book that captures the rhythms of life.”— Kirkus Reviews

Illustrated by “Corazones Valientes,” six women artists from Costa Rica working together, this book celebrates four generations of women in one family. From great-grandmother to grandmother to mother to daughter, each shows love in a traditional way—in cooking tortillas, doing laundry, and giving flowers—and through increasingly modern methods as the years pass. But one thing never changes: the lullaby they sing, and the love they all have for one another. Written in both English and Spanish, this is a tribute to families and everyday love. “The timeless quality of maternal love is evident throughout.”—School Library Journal

Supports the Common Core State Standards

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780688146283
Publisher:	HarperCollins Publishers
Publication date:	04/28/1998
Edition description:	Spanish-language Edition
Pages:	48
Sales rank:	694
Product dimensions:	9.00(w) x 12.00(h) x 0.25(d)
Language:	Spanish
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

Lynn Reiser is the creator of many acclaimed books for children, including the bilingual books Margaret and Margarita/Margarita y Margaret; Tortillas and Lullabies/Tortillas y cancioncitas; and The Lost Ball/La pelota perdida. Lynn Reiser lives in Connecticut.

Lynn Reiser es autora de varios libros infantiles aclamados, entre ellos los libros bilingües Margaret and Margarita/Margarita y Margaret; Tortillas and Lullabies/Tortillas y cancioncitas; y The Lost Ball/La pelota perdida. Lynn Reiser vive en Connecticut.

Editorial Reviews

This is a bilingual book in which the author aims to focus on how, amidst changes in technology, certain family customs are kept yet adapted to new ways of life. In brief and very simple text it tells of a great grandmother, a grandmother, a mother, and a daughter and her doll; each making tortillas, gathering flowers, and singing a lullaby. At the end there is a lullaby in both languages. The illustrations were done in bright hues and simple shapes by a group of Costa Rican women from a Peace Corps project. However, the warmth and suggestion of family love in the text is not present in the paintings. Although the book is beautifully designed, the characters are either expressionless or simply cold. The Spanish version is at times too literal, especially the author's note. There is not a single translator, but rather seven translation consultants.

Children's Literature - Lulu Delacre

PreS-Gr 3In this beautiful picture book, four everyday activities are depictedmaking tortillas, gathering flowers, washing clothes, and singing a lullabyas they are repeated by the women of a family over the last four generations. A little girl relates the simple text as her great-grandmother is shown making tortillas for her grandmother over an outdoor fire, her grandmother makes them for her mother in a farm kitchen with a cast-iron stove, her mother is shown cooking for her in a modern kitchen, and the child prepares paper tortillas for her doll on a toy stove. Each activity shares the refrain: "Every time it was the same, but different." The timeless quality of maternal love is evident throughout. Six Costa Rican women worked together to produce the striking acrylic folk-art paintings. With deeply saturated, glowing tones and a decidedly Central American style, the pictures enhance and extend the lyrical narrative, which is printed in English and in Spanish. The words and music of a traditional Spanish lullaby are appended. A lovely, nostalgic glimpse at Central American family life.Denise E. Agosto, formerly at Midland County Public Library, TX

School Library Journal

In a companion to Cherry Pies and Lullabies (see review, above) Reiser infuses the often mundane actions of daily life with a sense of tradition and great love in a vibrantly illustrated, bilingual picture book that captures the rhythms of life. Told from the perspective of a young girl, the story opens with her great-grandmother making tortillas for the girl's grandmother, then moves through each successive generation to the present day, as the child makes tortillas for her doll. Gathering flowers, washing clothes, and singing lullabies are the other commonplace occurrences exalted by the mantras, which always conclude, "Every time it was the same, but different." Placing the English text at top of every page and the corresponding Spanish text at the bottom creates a unique border for the lush, colorful illustrations, created by a consortium of Costa Rican women known as the "Valiant Hearts." The bright, richly detailed pictures are almost overwhelming as they draw readers' eyes into the lives portrayed. Elements within each picture identify the eraþone dress is washed in a stream, another in a washing machineþand provide children with something of a searching game for details that demonstrate the passing of time. In both books, simple phrases and gentle repetition convey the enduring nature of love and the reassuring continuity of life. (Picture book. 4-8)

Kirkus Reviews