Culture 3: Hispanic/Latino(a) Literature - Pat Mora

BIBLIOGRAPHIC DATA:

Mora, Pat. 2007. YUM! ¡MMMM! ¡QUÉ RICO!: AMERICA’S SPROUTINGS. Ill. by Rafael López. New York: Lee & Low Books, Inc. ISBN 9781584302711

PLOT SUMMARY:

In YUM! ¡MMMM! ¡QUÉ RICO!: AMERICA’S SPROUTINGS, Pat Mora offers fourteen delicious haiku poems all about native foods of the Americas. Paired with gorgeous and vibrant illustrations, these poems come to life and leave readers craving the scrumptious foods. Mora also includes side notes for each food, giving readers background information about where each food is grown as well as how it is eaten and what it tastes like.

CRITICAL ANALYSIS:

An author’s note at the end of the book touches on the important cultural markers for this story. Mora discusses her love of variety and diversity, and she explains her reasons for wanting to write a poetry book about native foods that sprouted “before the Americas were divided into countries.” Mora states, “We do know that all these plants were grown and enjoyed by the peoples of the Americas long before Christopher Columbus or any other Europeans had ever tasted such wonderful foods. The world’s variety is amazing – and delicious.” This note sets the context for this fascinating look at fourteen foods and their origins. Mora skillfully uses a common love of food to give readers a look at the cultural and historical aspects of foods native to the Americas before European settlement.

Language is key to bringing the foods to life, and Mora also skillfully uses language as a cultural marker for this collection by sprinkling Spanish words throughout the book. Mora even includes a small glossary of four Spanish words at the beginning of the book.

Rafael López’s bright and colorful illustrations are a major part of the book’s appeal, and they help draw the reader’s attention to the multicultural aspects of the book. López skillfully depicts a variety of skin tones, hair colors, and facial features, emphasizing the point that food is for everyone.

The author’s side notes for each food also touch upon the multicultural nature of this book. Mora shares the history, origins, uses, trivia, and present-day facts for each of the fourteen featured foods. These side notes help readers root their perceptions of the foods in the cultural and historical context of the Americas prior to European settlement.

YUM! ¡MMMM! ¡QUÉ RICO!: AMERICA’S SPROUTINGS will be loved by children and adults alike, and it makes a great read aloud for sharing at story time. Not only is it a great source of information and creativity surrounding food, but it also serves as a great tribute to diversity and variety.

REVIEW EXCERPTS:

From LIBRARY MEDIA CONNECTION (February 2008):
“If you love food, this book will appeal to you. Pat Mora offers a sumptuous feast of Native American foods in haiku, a seventeen-syllable poem written with 3 lines in a 5-7-5 syllable format. With the sparkling words and the alluring illustrations, the reader will crave something to eat.”

From SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL (September 2007):
“Artful compositions and brilliant complementary colors bear out the book's multicultural themes. The art conveys an infectious sense of fun, as smiling suns and moons beam down upon happy children and animals, along with a trumpet-wielding peanut-butter sandwich and a dancing pineapple. Teachers will find this a welcome addition to their social-studies units, but it should also win a broad general audience for its inventive, fun-filled approach to an ever-popular topic: food.”

From HORN BOOK (Spring 2008):
“Fourteen haiku celebrate blueberries, chiles, chocolate, corn, pineapples, and other foods from North and South America. The language is light and kid-friendly: "Round roly-poly / squirts seedy, juicy splatter. / Red bursts in your mouth." Sidebars provide notes on each food. Acrylic on wood-panel illustrations dance with color and whimsy, complementing the high-spirited, playful descriptions of food in all its delicious diversity.”

CONNECTIONS:

Nominated for 2009-2010 Texas Bluebonnet Award

2008 ALA Notable/Best Book

2008 Américas Award

For younger students, pair this story with HOW ARE YOU PEELING?: FOODS WITH MOODS by Saxton Freymann, which includes fun photographs of food with faces. Have students choose a favorite food highlighted in YUM! ¡MMMM! ¡QUÉ RICO!: AMERICA’S SPROUTINGS to illustrate with a silly face.

Have older students choose their own favorite food to write a haiku for. Students can even paint a bright and colorful painting to pair with the haiku.

Everyone loves food! Bring in a sampling of some of the foods in the story to share with students while you read. Or, let them eat the food while you teach them the fast paced food rhyme that Pat Mora shares at the end of the book.