This is a nice easy read with good verbiage for ‘littles’. It also has some wonderful illustrations. I enjoyed this book and could use it in my class to accompany a few different ‘lesson topics’.

Maurice Holmes
Professor Ward
EDUC 417
9/12/2019
Reading Log #3

Author: Gary Paulsen
Copyright date: 1995
Title: The Tortilla Factory
Illustrator: Ruth Wright Paulsen
Publisher: Not Found
Tags: I think the theme of this book is just to emphasize the simple yet honest way of life of these farmers and factory workers.
Genre/ Grade Level: Non- Fiction. I think this book is great for Kindergarten to about 2nd grade.
Rating: 1
My opinion of the story was that it just really wasn’t for me. I wasn’t able to gain some sort of connection from it, nor could I relate to it. The story talked about how people work hard in the fields, to get that product to the factories, to then get it to people to eat. I do think this is a good idea, to in a way pay homage to the people to do that, but I don’t believe it was done the best.
I believe making it about one individual person and their own personal story would have given me a better chance to connect with the story, but overall it was not my favorite. ( )

This story was about how tortillas are made. The story is written in a poetic kind of way by repeating itself of using the same sentence structure. I think this story is important because it shows how life comes from these tiny little seeds, that are worked into the ground, taken care of for months, then picked and turned into food. I think this can teach children to appreciate hard work. ( )

I had mixed feelings about this story. The language is descriptive when describing how tortillas are made. For example, one of the pages stated, “make golden corn to dry in the hot sun and be ground into flour” . The illustrations are all beautiful and authentic paintings. The book also explains a process that may be culturally relevant to some children.Tortillas are used in many different foods that almost every culture enjoys in some way, so the process of how they are made can be engaging and educational for students. However, there are no characters for children to connect with and there is no conflict, which could lead to the reader getting bored. While tortillas themselves can be connected to students’ cultures, working at a tortilla factory would not be a relatable concept for most children, which could also be an issue when they are trying to stay engaged.The language is very simple, so this book would only be appropriate for beginning readers. Older elementary school students would not benefit nearly as much as younger students from reading this story. The strongest aspects of this story in my opinion were the illustrations and use of descriptive and figurative language. ( )

PFL