Blog Posts

Let’s Eat! Written by Ana Zamorano – Illustrated by Julie Vivas

This wonderful book tells the story of a big happy family who eat a big lunch together every day and enjoy each other’s company. The warm colors and creative perspectives (overhead, up close, from afar) of the pictures kept our readers eager to turn the pages to see what was next.

The book has a terrific, comforting rhythm in its predictable but never boring structure — it follows one week where each day one family member is too busy to come to the table and the other family members feel sad.

Qué pena! What a pity! It’s not as fun to eat lunch when someone is missing — but everything comes back to normal with a joyous reunion (and the arrival of a new family member!) at the end.

The children were engaged by and curious about the traditional Hispanic food and Spanish words interwoven in the story: paella, empanadas, gazpacho etc. Some foods were familiar and others were brand new.

We made lots of connections talking about trying new food and learning about other students’ cultures.

Happy family! Many students connected with this picture because some of them live with extended family members. They were eager to try to identify the characters and relate them to their own families. Some made guesses about what was going to happen in the story, based on this picture and Mama’s big tummy!
This book also gave us the opportunity to review the days of the week.
The children love to sing the days of the week!
This illustration captured my group’s attention.
Seeing the crabs reminded them of a celebration on our island of Martinique. It’s the equivalent of Thanksgiving and happens on Easter Monday, when every family eats crabs and rice. We wondered and talked about other cultural traditions that include family meals and special food.
All together again, the family is making great memories. Qué maravilla! How wonderful, indeed!

1 thought on “Let’s Eat! Written by Ana Zamorano – Illustrated by Julie Vivas”

Leave a Reply