Burro's Tortillas

What do you get when you cross The Little Red Hen with a burro and his friends? Burro’s Tortillas! In this humorous Southwestern retelling of a childhood favorite, Burro finds it difficult to get any help from his friends as he diligently works to turn corn into tortillas. Young children will love the repetition; older children will enjoy the book’s many puns. In addition to its Southwestern “flavor,” the delightful story imparts an accurate picture of the traditional way that tortillas are made.

2007 Southwest Books of the Year selection
Reviewed by: Kirkus Reviews, CLCD, Nola Baby Magazine, The Parent Guide, Armchair Interviews, The Horn Book Guide, Latino Perspectives, The Reading Tub, Stories for Children Magazine

4-6 pg For Creative Minds educational section in the back
40-60 pg cross-curricular Teaching Activities and 3 Interactive Quizzes available free on the book’s homepage
eBooks with Auto-Flip, Auto-Read and selectable English and Spanish text and audio

Kirkus Reviews

Those looking for a Southwestern or Mexican variant of The Little Red Hen will find it here. Burro, dressed in overalls and a chile-bedecked shirt, calls his friends to help him pick the corn to make tortillas: "Whinee aw ah aw. Mis amigos-vengan aqu'." Bobcat, coyote and jackrabbit in turn respond, "Yo no," and add punning explanations. "I've really got to hop along," says the jackrabbit. The silly illustrations are bland, but the corny text moves briskly. The main interest is in the cultural variation on the traditional story, and the demonstration of the process of making tortillas. An appendix contains information on corn, a recipe for tortillas and a Spanish-English vocabulary page with space to write (which could be a problem for libraries, although instructions for downloading the worksheets are also included). "Yo," as the jackrabbit says, "Hare's looking at you, let's eat!" (Picture book. 4-7)

Terri Fields, an author and English teacher, lives in Phoenix, Arizona.