This beautifully illustrated book tells a warm story in both English and Spanish. A rhythmic text with repetitive phrases relates how children watch their Mama make soup before enjoying the results of her labor. Includes recipe. Full color. Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.

As they watch Mamá chop vegetables to fill her large soup pot, four Latino children eagerly anticipate suppertime: "We can't wait, can't wait, can't wait. Is it ready? Is it ready? Is it ready?" Written in the children's collective voice, Bertrand's (Alicia's Treasure) text, printed in both English and Spanish, is belabored and unduly repetitious. DeLange's (Pepita Talks Twice/Pepita habla dos veces) festively hued, watercolor and ink cartoons lack polish. However, as they cheerfully burst out of crowded patterned borders, her renderings of the incessantly smiling siblings convey their enthusiasm‘and impatience‘for the traditional soup and for the tortillas the family sees being made at the tortillería. A generic soup recipe wraps up this less than satiating volume. Ages 3-7. (May) From: Reed Elsevier Inc. Copyright Reed Business Information

K-Gr 3‘Average-quality ink and watercolor cartoons that make good use of borders and white space accompany a brisk bilingual text that uses rhythmic prose to tell a simple story. On dark rainy Sundays, Mama makes a good hot soup, a soup that "settles the stomach, soothes a backache, massages tired feet." The repeated refrain, "Caldo, caldo, caldo," gives a pleasantly rhythmic feel to a family ritual‘making soup (the recipe is appended) and buying tortillas to eat with it. Both Spanish and English texts read smoothly. Not as universal in appeal as Margo Griego's Tortillitas para Mama (Holt, 1981), this title could accompany it at story time or stand on its own as a tale about hearth and home.‘Ann Welton, Terminal Park Elementary School, Auburn, WA From: Reed Elsevier Inc. Copyright Reed Business Information

From: Syndetics Solutions, Inc. Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.