School Library Journal Review
K-Gr 3Average-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 ritualmaking 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 (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
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 enthusiasmand impatiencefor 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) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Horn Book Review
Presented in both English and Spanish, this text is a mouth-watering celebration of a ''caldo' day'--when Mama 'pulls out her tall, dark soup pot with tiny white spots' and Papa takes the children to go buy tortillas. Although bright and energetic, the illustrations have a cartoonish quality that detracts from the warm text. A soup recipe is appended in English and Spanish. From HORN BOOK 1997, (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.