Tamales for Christmas by Stephen Briseño & Sonia Sánchez
Based on a true story, I can easily imagine this picture book becoming a classic. And look at that cover! Such perfect title placement, A+ design there. Every year, a grandmother prepares for Christmas by cooking hundreds, and I mean hundreds, of Christmas tamales. She begins preparing before Halloween, cooking as many tamales as she can. The kitchen is the drumbeat of the home. By early December, she’s made 575 tamales, but she keeps cooking. Finally, it’s time to sell the tamales and we discover the reason she cooks so many. An author’s note follows with a photograph of the real grandmother behind the tamales, plus a recipe.