Pat Mora, illustrated by Rafael López,
Yum! Mmm! Que Rico! America’s Sproutings
Lee & Low, 2007.

Ages 4-10

Chiles, papayas and prickly pears praised in Haiku form: with Yum! Mmm! Que Rico! America's Sproutings award-winning writer and poet, Pat Mora, creator of Dia de los Niños/Dia de los Libros, pays tribute to the diversity she embraces and celebrates through her work.

This 2008 ALA Notable title strikes the right combination of flavor and substance by mixing crops of indigenous plants from the Americas with the traditional Japanese poetry form: each food is presented through the 5-7-5 syllable rhythm of a haiku, side by side with some informative text. Rafael López’s smiley boy flying on the wings of a bird, scattering blueberries in the air, is one of the unforgettable images that enhances the book’s text – his scrumptious mural-like paintings holding meanings beyond the words themselves.

Kids will no doubt relish learning the colorful rhyme and reason of native fruits and vegetables, and the contrast between the briefness of the poems and the “nutritional value” of the subject matter will be appreciated by adults using it in connection to curriculum.

A mouth-watering treat of a book that will satisfy and inform.

Aline Pereira
March 2008