"My name is Ana. Every year, my family makes tamales for Christmas. This year, I am six, so I get to mix the dough, which is made of cornmeal. My sister Lidia is eight, so she gets to spread the dough on the corn husk leaves. I wish I was eight, so that my hands would be big enough to spread the dough just right--not too thick and not too thin." And so the years pass, and Ana turns eight, ten, twelve, fourteen, sixteen. But every year, big sister Lidia is always two years older. Ana envies her elder sibling and wishes she could do what Lidia does: put just the right amount of meat inside the tamales and roll them up; steam the tamales without scalding herself with the hot, hot steam; chop and cook the meat for the tamales without cutting or burning her hands. When she turns eighteen, though, Ana knows she will keep making tamales and she will be able to do all of the steps herself in her very own factory. When Christmas comes around, Ana will deliver tamales to all of her customers around the world, in delivery trucks that say "Ana's Tamales." And maybe Ana will even let Lidia work for her. Gwendolyn Zepeda's rhythmic prose is combined with April Ward's bright illustrations to create an affectionate and amusing story about sibling relationships that introduces an important Hispanic holiday tradition -- making tamales!

Everybody loves a birthday party, and there's a lot to enjoy at Papa Luis' fiesta The children excitedly count the candy that will fill the pinata. The nieces bring the candles for the birthday cake that Mama Marta baked. Family and friends begin to arrive, and soon, they surprise Papa Luis with his special celebration. Told in lively verse, this cumulative tale builds from one page to the next as popular children's book author Diane Gonzales Bertrand presents a charming look at a big family gathering that celebrates the patriarch's birthday. Like her previous award-winning book, The Empanadas that Abuela Made/Las empanadas que hacia la abuela, Diane Gonzales Bertrand gives emerging readers another book that creates confidence and skills through repetition and sentence building. Accompanied by Alejandro Galindo's whimsical illustrations of big-eyed children and elderly family members dancing and enjoying each other, this fun-filled fiesta is sure to delight children ages 4 - 8. After reading this appealing bilingual story, kids will eagerly begin planning their own birthday parties.

Told in the style of a cumulative folk song, a grandmother makes empanadas, a traditional Hispanic treat, for her family. Includes recipe.