Jorge Argueta, illustrated by Fernando Vilela,
Rice Pudding: A Cooking Poem / Arroz con leche: Un poema para cocinar
Groundwood Books/House of Anansi Press, 2010.

Rating: E*

A young boy loves all kinds of rice, whether white or brown, whether fried or stewed; and he loves rice with anything, such as chicken and beans. But most of all, he loves rice pudding. So one day he decides to make it for his family, thereby sharing the recipe and procedure with the reader. From collecting all the ingredients and supervising the cooking procedure, the boy carries the reader off on a unique food experience - an experience that ends, of course, with a deliciously wafting smell and the sharing of something to eat that’s been made with love.

Told in free verse, the poetic language is richly textured and lyrical, a wonderful read-aloud. Vilela’s earth-toned illustrations are filled with cascading rhythm. Together, words and illustrations present the magic of "white grains of rice rain[ing] music and sing[ing]" as they fall, and milk becoming a "white waterfall in the kitchen" as it swirls through the air and into the pot. In the text, asterisks point out where in the cooking procedure the participation or supervision of an adult is required. And the mother’s presence in the story is always felt in the illustrations, whether it’s as a shadow or silhouette or as a fully revealed character.

The book is bilingual, the text presented in both Spanish and English.

Thematic Links: Food - Rice Pudding; Recipes; Cooking; Poetry; Language - English and Spanish

Ken Kilback
Vol. 16, number 3
February 2011

*Rating System:
E - Excellent, enduring, everyone should see it!
G - Good, even great at times, generally useful!
A - Average, all right, has its applications.
P - Problematic, puzzling, poorly presented.