In the book The Cazuela that the Farm Maiden Stirred by Samantha R. Vamos, illustrated by Rafael López, the story builds up through repetition, like “The House that Jack Built.” This cumulative form is ideal for a story about making a recipe, and for teaching us all some Spanish words (there’s also a glossary at the back). Best of all, the results of the recipe are a surprise! Here Samantha Vamos talks about how a cold Chicago day planted the seeds for her heartwarming tale of many farm hands (and hooves) that come together to make a wonderful meal.

How did you come up with the idea for The Cazuela that the Farm Maiden Stirred?
We were living in Chicago in a frontier area of the city and didn’t have a car. I wanted to make pancakes, but I didn’t have two crucial ingredients: milk and eggs. In order to get them, I’d have to take a taxi or a bus, but it was bitterly cold. I thought about how great it would be to live on a farm. I’d be the farm maiden and I’d ring the cow and say, “Could I have some freshly given milk?” I did have a pot, and this line came to me, “This is the cazuela that the farm maiden stirred.” The rhythm reminded me of “This Is the House that Jack Built.” I never made the pancakes, but I did finish writing a first draft of the story.

We liked the way you taught us Spanish words through the repetition of the story’s events.
I wanted the story to be bilingual, and I always wanted to write a book with a recipe. I needed to create specific characters to bring a different ingredient. The cow and chicken were obvious choices.  “The House that Jack Built” structure was the perfect way for the Spanish words to be incorporated and remembered, since they’re repeated. Organically, it just kind of flowed.

We liked the part where the cow is teaching the cabra (goat) how to make mantequilla (butter) with her own milk!
As I thought about it, I needed to have some transition, I needed to have action animals to advance the story. It made sense to me that the cow would teach the goat. I didn’t know Rafael would put a toque [chef’s hat] on the goat’s head!

We also liked when the duck (pato) rides the burro (donkey) to the mercado (market) to buy azúcar (sugar) for the recipe. At first, we didn’t notice the burro’s back!
We had that experience here too! I didn’t see any of Rafael’s early work; I saw it when it was ready to go to the printer. I was looking at that page, and I loved the colors. He draws a black line as if it’s a coloring page, and then paints them in. You see a lot of lines because he paints on wood. So I was turning the page, and for me it was the same! I thought, “He’s riding on the back of the burro!” But I only saw that on the second or third reading. I loved that the burro has boots.

Another thing Rafael did is he made the sun look different in–I think–eight different images, sometimes laughing, sometimes winking. The sun is on each page when the duck appears.

Most of the characters had not one but two jobs to do to make the meal. It’s kind of the opposite of The Little Red Hen, isn’t it?
In The Little Red Hen, the animals aren’t mean, but they’re eating on their own, it’s kind of lonely. I’m not trying to pat myself on the back, but I like that, in this story, the animals are doing things and participating. It’s only natural that they’d enjoy the meal because they deserve to.

Samantha Vamos and her publisher, Charlesbridge, have created an activity guide with ideas that you can do together with your youngster to extend the book’s themes, from math to Bingo cards featuring the Spanish/English words used in the story. Rafael López did the illustrations. Read or BookChat with this fantastic children’s book for free on Readeo during May!

Jenny Brown is the editor for Readeo and oversees all book selection for the site. She has worked in the children’s book world for the past 25 years, holding positions with HarperCollins and Scholastic, and was the Children’s Books Reviews Editor for Publishers Weekly.  She currently writes for School Library Journal, Kirkus Reviews, and Shelf Awareness. Jenny graduated from Princeton University. You can read more from Jenny on her Web site, Twenty by Jenny.

Dear Readeo Friends,

A trio of children’s books this week helps your toddler identify parts of his or her daily life.

Two books by Liesbet Slegers, the author we featured in December, put names to aspects of a toddler’s everyday routines. In Playing, a child kicks a ball, builds a “high tower” of blocks, and puts everything in his red wagon at the end of playtime. Bathing begins with the moment the water runs into the bathtub, continues through washing up with soap and playing with a toy boat, and ends with a child being lovingly wrapped in a “warm and cuddly” towel.

Has your child ever had to share a favorite toy with a pet? That’s what happens to young Willy one morning in I Must Have Bobo by Eileen Rosenthal, illustrated by Marc Rosenthal. Willy wakes up and cannot find his sock monkey, Bobo. Where could he be? Does Earl the cat know where he is? And what will Willy do without Bobo to make him brave enough to go down the slide and walk by the big dog down the street?

BookChat with these new books and let us know what you think of our new additions here or on our Facebook page. We love hearing from you!

With all my best,
Jenny

Jenny Brown is the editor for Readeo and oversees all book selection for the site. She has worked in the children’s book world for the past 25 years, holding positions with HarperCollins and Scholastic, and was the Children’s Books Reviews Editor for Publishers Weekly.  She currently writes for School Library Journal, Kirkus Reviews, and Shelf Awareness. Jenny graduated from Princeton University. You can read more from Jenny on her Web site, Twenty by Jenny.

This week we continue to celebrate the slightly off-beat view of Craig Frazier, the author of Lots of Dots, our featured book for April. Last week he helped us see dots everywhere we looked. This week, he invites us to see everyday things, like a farm and a fishing hole, in entirely new ways.

The first children’s book Craig Frazier ever published is Stanley Goes for a Drive, starring an ordinary farmer and his pick-up truck. At least, Stanley seems ordinary. But when he drives his truck out to milk his cow, magical things start to happen.

The second book starring the farmer is Stanley Goes Fishing. We bet you can guess this is not your usual fishing trip. Stanley has no luck catching any fish until he notices the reflection of some clouds in the water and decides to cast his fishing pole into the sky. You have to see it to believe it.

Please let us know what you think of our new additions on our Facebook page. We love hearing from you!

With all my best,
Jenny

Jenny Brown is the editor for Readeo and oversees all book selection for the site. She has worked in the children’s book world for the past 25 years, holding positions with HarperCollins and Scholastic, and was the Children’s Books Reviews Editor for Publisher’s Weekly.  She currently writes for School Library Journal, Kirkus Reviews, and Shelf Awareness. Jenny graduated from Princeton University. You can read more from Jenny on her Web site, Twenty by Jenny.

Dear Readeo Friends,

Let us reassure you in advance that all three of our books end happily this week.

Although a wolf threatens Little Red Riding Hood, and a wicked stepmother tries to remove Snow White from her beauty contest, the heroines (with a little help from their friends) come out just fine in these retellings of the classic Brothers Grimm tales. Debbie Lavreys’s illustrations for both books help make the wolf seem less frightening and indicate to readers that the Seven Dwarfs will do their best to keep Snow White safe.

It might be fun to read Little Red Riding Hood and then go to our featured book this month, Interrupting Chicken by David Ezra Stein, to see how the little red chicken hero tries to warn Little Red Riding Hood about the wolf’s villainous plans.

In our third new addition to the Readeo library, Ricky Is Brave by Guido van Genechten, the rabbit hero sets out to spend the night alone in a tent (in his backyard). What starts out as an adventure turns a bit scary—until Ricky finds out the source of his fears. You might recognize the artwork (and the humor) from Guido van Genechten’s other book in our library, No Ghost Under My Bed.

Please let us know what you think of our new additions on our Facebook page. We love hearing from you!

With all my best,
Jenny


Jenny Brown is the editor for Readeo and oversees all book selection for the site. She has worked in the children’s book world for the past 25 years, holding positions with HarperCollins and Scholastic, and was the Children’s Books Reviews Editor for Publisher’s Weekly.  She currently writes for School Library Journal, Kirkus Reviews, and Shelf Awareness. Jenny graduated from Princeton University. You can read more from Jenny on her Web site, Twenty by Jenny.

Dear Readeo Friends,

Our three new titles this week will satisfy curious minds in search of facts. Did you know there was a female Pharaoh of Egypt in the 15th century B.C.? Her name was Pharaoh Hatshepsut. One of the sphinx sculptures that she had planned to guard her tomb is now in New York’s Metropolitan Museum. If you want to know how it got from Egypt to America, this book will answer your questions: How the Sphinx Got to the Museum by Jessie Hartland.

For those of you who wonder what lives in the Okefenokee Swamp that stretches over the border between Georgia and Florida, Deep in the Swamp by Donna M. Bateman, illustrated by Brian Lies, is the book for you. Alligators, snapping turtles, and rat snakes (they can swim!) are among the creatures you’ll meet.

Grace Lin received a Newbery Honor for her book Where the Mountain Meets the Moon, a novel inspired by the Chinese folktales she learned as a child. In her picture book The Ugly Vegetables, she describes what she thinks are ugly plants that come out of her mother’s garden—at least compared to her neighbors’ flower gardens. Until she finds out what you can do with those “ugly vegetables.” (Hint: there’s a recipe at the end of the book.)

We think these books will leave you feeling wiser than before. But let us know what you think on our Facebook page. We love hearing from you!

With all my best,
Jenny


Jenny Brown is the editor for Readeo and oversees all book selection for the site. She has worked in the children’s book world for the past 25 years, holding positions with HarperCollins and Scholastic, and was the Children’s Books Reviews Editor for Publisher’s Weekly.  She currently writes for School Library Journal, Kirkus Reviews, and Shelf Awareness. Jenny graduated from Princeton University. You can read more from Jenny on her Web site, Twenty by Jenny.