What Can You Do with a Paleta?

Where the paleta wagon rings its tinkly belland carries a treasure of icy paletasin every color of the sarape . . .

As she strolls through her barrio, a young girl introduces readers to the frozen, fruit-flavored treat that thrills Mexican and Mexican-American children. Create a masterpiece, make tough choices (strawberry or coconut?), or cool off on a warm summer's day—there's so much to do with a paleta.

Where the paleta wagon rings its tinkly belland carries a treasure of icy paletasin every color of the sarape . . .

As she strolls through her barrio, a young girl introduces readers to the frozen, fruit-flavored treat that thrills Mexican and Mexican-American children. Create a masterpiece, make tough choices (strawberry or coconut?), or cool off on a warm summer's day—there's so much to do with a paleta.

Kirkus Reviews

In any Latino barrio, the highlight of a summer afternoon filled with the sweet and savory smells of flowers and crispy tacos is the arrival of the paleta vendor with his deliciously cool fruit popsicles. Made in a variety of flavors and colors, the paleta can be the inspiration for fun and creativity with old and new friends. Purple tongues, blue mustaches, a palette of swirly, drippy art-all are second to the real enjoyment of a paleta: "to . . . / lick it and slurp it / and sip it and munch it / and gobble it all down." Tafolla's English text sprinkles easily recognizable Spanish words throughout, creating a parallel to the Anglo neighborhood icecream truck in a very Latin setting. Morales's ethnically detailed acrylic paintings in earthen tones against primary colors help to identify the key Spanish words and augment the circular story pattern, in which the introductory verses repeat in the final pages. A simultaneous duallanguage edition presents a parallel Spanish translation that accompanies the English text (9781582462899). (Picture book. 36)

MAGALY MORALES is known for the bright colors and infectious sense of play in her illustrations. She was born in Xalapa, Veracruz, Mexico.


CARMEN TAFOLLA is a poet whose stories for children and adults have appeared in more than two hundred poetry anthologies. She lives in a hundred-year-old house in San Antonio, Texas, with her husband, children, mother, and many pets.