I have mixed feelings about this story. There is English writing on the top half of each page and Spanish writing on the bottom half. This is a good story for English Language Learners who have already started to learn how to read in their native language. It is also good for English speaking students who are learning how to speak Spanish, since even the English part of the story has some Spanish translations. One of the big ideas of the story is not to be too hard on yourself because you are often your biggest critic. This is shown when Magda is making tortillas with her abuela, but is scared to show her family because she did not like how they turned out. The entire family loved Magda’s tortillas and called her an artist for making them so beautifully, which made Magda feel a lot better. This is a great message for children because they should be proud of the effort they put into everything they do without being too harsh on themselves. The illustrations are detailed, realistic, colorful, and add to the overall mood of the story. This book encourages children to compare their family traditions to those of children from different cultures. It helps them realize that although the details about a group of people, such as foods they eat, may be different depending on the culture, the importance of family tradition is emphasized all around the world. The book may be a little too long to keep a young elementary school student’s attention, but the target audience for the story is students in grades K-2. This could be an issue since the children who are developmentally ready to read this story on their own may get bored while reading this story since there is no real action or suspenseful moment in the book. This would be a hard book for the target audience to read independently, so I would strongly recommend using it as a read aloud book in the classroom. ( )

This is a great bilingual book for elementary readers because it is a story of persistence and family values. Magda expects her tortillas to be perfect like Abuela's. Her Abuela has made tortillas for many years, and it takes a lot of practice to get them as round as Abuela's. Magda learns that even though her tortillas aren't perfect, the funny shapes are recognized as different things, and eating them is fun for her family. Many things in life require a lot of practice, and often people give up on what they want to do because it seems too difficult. This story supports the idea that perfection is not important; it's the journey toward learning and improving that is most important. If Magda had given up, her family would not have enjoyed her creative tortillas. The family in this story is very close. Magda's birthday experience is a special one because she gets to learn an important skill from her Abuela (grandmother), one that has been passed down from generation to generation. It's a heart-and-tortilla-warming story. ( )

"While learning to make tortillas on her seventh birthday, Magda tries to make perfectly round ones like those made by her grandmother but instead creates a variety of wonderful shapes."
In Spanish and English. ( )

This multicultural book is about the Mexican culture and how they cook. A little girl named Magda Madrigal washed her little hands and was getting ready to make tortillas. She was helping her grandma Abuela who was called a tortilla artist. As Magela was making her tortilla's she was upset that the tortilla's that she made were not round like her grandmother, Abuela. Magda made shapes: stars, hearts, bananas, flowers, hexagons, footballs, and a cloud. After the tortillas were done cooking, the rest of the family came in and ate all of them. So Magda had to make more and that made her happy. I learned that the Mexicans make the tortillas out of scratch and the little children help with the process. The Mexican families eat tortillas for a snack in the afternoon, and they spend many hours making them. The families also spend time together and making sure everyone is taken care of. In the classroom, I could use this story to do a lesson over Mexicans and their culture. All the students could learn that children in other countries help the adults just the same as Americans expect their children to. The lives of Mexicans are the same even though they live in another part away from America. The children could also make a tortilla in class and see how difficult it is, and time consuming, making a tortilla can be.