Sopa de frijoles / Bean Soup: Un poema para cocinar / A Cooking Poem

by Jorge Argueta, Rafael Yockteng (Illustrator)

Overview

This delightful recipe in poem form shows us all, young and old, how to make a heartwarming, tummy-filling bean soup

From gathering the beans, onions and garlic to letting them swim in the pot until the house smells wonderful and it’s time for supper.

A young boy helps his mother prepare a soup the whole family will enjoy using ingredients from Mother Earth. Onions are “yellow as the dawn,” beans are like stars spread out on the “sky of the table” and the water in the pot is “as deep as a little lake.” While the soup is cooking, the boy buries the cooking scraps under a tree in the yard “so Mother Earth keeps on growing flavors.”

Simply written, yet full of vivid imagery, Jorge Argueta’s verse and Rafael Yockteng’s animated illustrations make preparing bean soup a fun, almost magical experience. This book is a great family recipe/poem for those who already love bean soup — it is a comfort food for many — and for those who are looking for a delicious new healthy food.

Key Text Features
recipe
procedural text

Correlates to the Common Core State Standards in English Language Arts:

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.K.4
Ask and answer questions about unknown words in a text.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.K.5
Recognize common types of texts (e.g., storybooks, poems).

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.2.4
Describe how words and phrases (e.g., regular beats, alliteration, rhymes, repeated lines) supply rhythm and meaning in a story, poem, or song.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781773060026
Publisher:	Groundwood Books
Publication date:	03/14/2017
Series:	Bilingual Cooking Poems Series , #2
Edition description:	Bilingual: Spanish-English Edition
Pages:	32
Sales rank:	450,446
Product dimensions:	7.10(w) x 10.30(h) x 0.20(d)
Lexile:	AD550L (what's this?)
Age Range:	4 - 7 Years

About the Author

JORGE ARGUETA, a Pipil Nahua Indian from El Salvador and Poet Laureate of San Mateo County, is a prize-winning author of more than twenty children’s books. His book Somos como las nubes / We Are Like the Clouds won the Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Award and was named to USBBY’s Outstanding International Books List, ALA Notable Children’s Books and the Cooperative Children’s Book Center Choices. Jorge is the founder of the International Children's Poetry Festival Manyula and the Library of Dreams, a non-profit organization that promotes literacy in El Salvador. Jorge divides his time between San Francisco, California, and El Salvador.

RAFAEL YOCKTENG has illustrated many highly acclaimed children’s books, including Afterward, Everything was Different: A Tale From the Pleistocene; Wounded Falcons (two starred reviews and named a USBBY Outstanding International Book); Jimmy the Greatest! (six starred reviews); Two White Rabbits (three starred reviews); and Walk with Me (three starred reviews) by Jairo Buitrago. Rafael’s books have been included on IBBY’s Honor List, the Horn Book Fanfare and in the White Ravens Catalogue. He lives in Bogotá, Colombia.

Editorial Reviews

Reinforcing the strong connection between cooking and poetry, Argueta combines the two in a bilingual free-verse recipe for ‘una sabrosa sopita de frijoles,’ or ‘yummy bean soup’...Both versions have an easy flow that positively bubbles with the young chef’s elemental delight.

Booklist

USBBY Outstanding International Books Honor List

“Argueta’s lyrical Spanish translated into its counterpart English is filled with visual and aromatic imagery that turns soup-making into art.” — Kirkus Reviews

“The earthy tones in the soft watercolor illustrations are pleasing to viewers...Kids will enjoy hearing the story read...” — School Library Journal

“Reinforcing the strong connection between cooking and poetry, Argueta combines the two in a bilingual free-verse recipe for ‘una sabrosa sopita de frijoles,’ or ‘yummy bean soup’...Both versions have an easy flow that positively bubbles with the young chef’s elemental delight.” — Booklist

From the Publisher

K-Gr 2

A bilingual free-verse poem that describes how to make bean soup. An asterisk indicates the parts that require adult participation. "Now it is/time to cut the onion.*/First you have to remove/the onion's coat/its soft delicate skin.... Try not to cry/because tears can make/food taste sour." A boy with two pinpoint eyes and a thin-lined mouth is seen going through the steps, with his mother hovering in the background. The earthy tones in the soft watercolor illustrations are pleasing to viewers. Text is on the left, with a full-page illustration on the right. Kids will enjoy hearing the story read aloud but may not get some of the poetic rhythm and imagery on their own.-Sandra Welzenbach, Villarreal Elementary School, San Antonio, TX

School Library Journal

This free-verse cooking poem is more than a simple recipe for bean soup. Argueta's lyrical Spanish translated into its counterpart English is filled with visual and aromatic imagery that turns soup-making into art. Describing ingredients such as water "whose caresses give us life," garlic cloves each "in a little white dress" and salt sprinkled "as though it were rain blossoming from your hand," Argueta's metaphorical instructions produce bean-filled water that doesn't just boil, but sings as it turns brown, "the color of mother Earth," making the house smell "like the earth after the first winter rains." Yockteng's parallel earthy-toned paintings oppose each new instructive page, illustrating an animated boy performing each step of the recipe until the inviting scent and warmth of the kitchen beckons a loving family to the table. Starred cues appropriately indicate adult help where needed in this eloquent rendering of a nutritious and delicious meal. (Picture book. 5-8)

Kirkus Reviews