Tortillitas para Mamá and Other Nursery Rhymes (Bilingual Edition in Spanish and English)

As other reviewers have indicated, there are some highly inappropriate messages contained here, at least by contemporary standards. For example, a little girl who expects her mother to beat her if she gets her dress dirty, and "good" tortillas going to the papa and burnt ones to the mama. Plenty of other bilingual gems out there - bypass this collection!

I know people have complained here about some of the poems, and it's true that to our ears a couple of them (the mother hitting the girl because she soils her dress and the one about the dad getting the good tortillas and the mother getting the burned ones) are shocking. Be that as it may, let us not fall victim to ethnocentrism and accuse Mexican culture of being more misogynist or violent than ours, on the basis of these rhymes. It bears remembering that much of American/English childhood lore (Mother Goose, anyone?) also reflects the violence and harshness of earlier times. I do think that children kind of instinctively understand that these things are rhymes and songs and not necessarily prescriptives for living. Otherwise we wouldn't be singing Three Blind Mice to them, right?

The illustrations in this book, by the legendary Barbara Cooney, are well worth the price of the book alone. They are charming and gorgeous, and absolutely accurate, as well. Every detail, from the characters' clothing to the plant life, is perfectly depicted, and shows our children much about life in another culture. Add to that the rhymes, which give a very nice picture into another kind of childhood. If the harsher ones bother you (and it's really only 4 lines in total in the entire book), simply adjust them to your taste. I do the same with Mother Goose and Grimm fairy tales too.

I was born and raised in Central America and was searching for books that I could read to my daughter, that I could relate too. This book hit the spot! I love it because I have been able to share with my daughter rhymes that I heard my grandmother and mother say to me, that I had forgotten. My daughter is now 7 and we have memorized them and enjoy reciting them to each other in Spanish. There is one rhyme that is a little harsh, however, one must remember that these rhymes have been passed down from one generation to another, just like the Mother Goose rhymes,and unfortunately, this one particular rhyme gets lost in translation and sounds horrible in English. The Spanish language is a beautiful language and very rarely do the words translate into English very well, so please don't take it to seriously. So if you are looking to share your culture with your child or learn about another culture, this book should do the job.The bottom line is...we love it!

It seems like many people reviewing this book have been offended by a few lines and are upset that the rhymes and songs in this book don't live up to our modern cultural expectations. One has to expect that folk songs and rhymes coming from a different time and culture are going to contain ideas that simply are not politically correct. However offensive to us, these traditional verses give us insight into the culture of that time and can provide a springboard for conversation about important issues. If you do not feel that your child is ready for this type of conversation, simply leave out the verses that offend you. I really think that there are only about two or three lines in the entire book that might cause offense.
Additionally, we have so many nursery rhymes and folk tales that we learned in our own childhood that do not align with our modern values and yet didn't seem to cause lifelong damage for most of us(think "Peter, Peter, Pumpkin Eater" or any of the Uncle Remus stories).
Questionable lines aside, this book is beautifully illustrated and includes engaging rhymes that will help your child build vocabulary and phonemic awareness.

A few reviewers have blasted this book for a couple of verses that contain ideas no longer acceptable in our society- like the Dad getting the good tortillas and the Mother the burnt ones. I agree that this is something to consider. I want to add, though, that my Mother read to me from this book when I was a child and it in no way ingrained these ideas into my young mind. As a young girl, in fact, this was one of my favorite books. Many of the other verses in Tortillas para mama are so beautiful that I think it would be a shame not to recommend it. There is one about the moon eating prickly pears (ahi viene la luna comiendo tuna) and another about a mother being an angel that I can recite to this day. If you are concerned about the questionable lines (and I reiterate that there are only a couple!), I would suggest you either leave those poems out when you read or else talk to your children about what those lines mean and how things have changed since they were written. It might end up being very constructive!