Too Many Tamales [Hardcover]

Christmas Eve started out so perfectly for Maria. Snow had fallen and the streets glittered. Maria's favorite cousins were coming over and she got to help make the tamales for Christmas dinner. It was almost too good to be true when her mother left the kitchen for a moment and Maria got to try on her beautiful diamond ring . . .

This is the story of a treasure thought to be lost in a batch of tamales; of a desperate adn funny attempt by Maria and her cousins to eat their way out of trouble; and the warm way a family pulls together to make it a perfect Christmas after all.

Also available in Spanish as ¡Qué montón de tamales! A very funny story, full of delicious surprises . . . a joyful success. --Booklist, starred review

A warm family story that combines glowing art with a well-written text to tell of a girl's dilemma. --School Library Journal, starred review

A mini-drama rendered so acutely that anyone who has lost something special will respond. --The Bulletin of the Center for Children's BooksBorn in Fresno, California to Mexican American parents, Gary Soto learned the hard work ethic through his share of chores, including mowing lawns, picking grapes, painting house numbers on street curbs, and washing cars. His hard work paid off at California State University at Fresno, from which he graduated with an English degree, and later at the University of California at Irvine, where he earned a Masters of Fine Arts in Creative Writing.

Gary Soto is an acclaimed poet, essayist, and fiction writer. The awards for this multi-talented author are many, ranging from the U.S. Award for International Poetry Forum in 1977 for his first published book of poetry,The Elements of San Joaquin, to a Before Columbus Foundation American Book Award in 1985 forLiving Up the Street, his first published work of prose recollections. His short story collectionBaseball in April, was nlS