Mama Provi and the Pot of Rice - Softcover

Sylvia Rosa-Casanova

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0153143258 ISBN 13: 9780153143250

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin School, 1999

Synopsis

Mama Provi the the Pot of Rice

About this title

From the Back Cover

Mama Provi and her granddaughter Lucy live in the same tall apartment building -- Mama Provi on the first floor, Lucy on the eighth. When Lucy has the chicken pox and can't come down to visit, Mama Provi decides to make a trip upstairs with a big pot of her tasty arroz con pollo. But on her way up the seven flights of stairs, she meets a neighbor on every floor. En un dos por tres (in Spanish this means "lickedy-split"), the chicken and rice are joined by Mrs. Landers's crusty white bread, Senor Rivera's frijoles negros, Mrs. Woo's tea, and more . . . and Mama Provi arrives at Lucy's door with a tremendous feast!

From School Library Journal

Kindergarten-Grade 3. When her granddaughter Lucy is sick, Mama Provi makes a big pot of arroz con pollo for her and sets off on the journey from her first-floor apartment to Lucy's eighth-floor home in the same building. On each floor, Mama Provi trades a bit of her rice with a different neighbor, receiving a new type of food each time. By the time she finally reaches Lucy, the two have a tremendous and varied feast. Mama Provi makes each trade "en un dos por tres" ("something like 'lickety-split'"), a pleasant refrain repeated throughout. Most readers will figure out where the rather wordy story is going right away, so the final meal is rather anticlimactic. Though the action of trading foods is repeated several times, the language and conversations are different enough to avoid monotony. The watercolor illustrations also add interest, offering varied perspectives of hallways, stairs, and apartments. The soft colors used for the people's clothes and food stand out nicely from the tans and off-whites in the background, reinforcing the warmth of the building's community. The foods and neighbors are almost too neatly varied in a multicultural fashion, as Se?or Rivera offers black beans; Mrs. Johnson, an African American, trades collard greens; and Mrs. Woo gives tea. The book avoids preachiness, however, by focusing on the neighborliness rather than the individuals' backgrounds. The result is a thoughtful, gentle, and satisfying story.?Steven Engelfried, West Linn Public Library, OR
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin School
• Publication date: 1999
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0153143258
• ISBN 13: 9780153143250
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 32