Customer Reviews

Mice And Beans

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

A few years ago, I had the pleasure of meeting Pam Munoz Ryan at a Summer Arts Children's Storytelling Forum held at California State University - Fresno. She read the book to parents, teachers, and students who attended the conference. I was amazed on the writing, culture, and illustrations that she used for this book. The novel serves as a tale of her childhood spending time with her family at her grandmother's house. Overall, the story teaches children the value of traditions, family, and heritage. In short, "Mice and Beans" is a good book to read.

Mice and Beans is a wonderful tale about a "forgetful" Grandmother's preparations for a birthday party. I love the repetition in the text that heartily lends itself to a fun read-aloud session.

This is a delightful book about an abuela's preparations for her granddaughter's birthday. She is diligently making her preparations during the week, but she keeps encountering setbacks, like a missing napkin, missing candles, and most of all, missing mousetraps. "No importa," she says, it's not important, she always manages a solution. What is important is having her family and celebration, not the individual trappings.

I love the way Ryan sprinkles Spanish words in her text, in a way that is comfortable for english speakers but will also bring the story home for spanish speakers. I admire the grandmother's easy, low key reaction to each setback, and her clever problem solving - arranging 6 candles in the shape of a 7, and I talked about that with my daughter, about how she didn't have to be upset even though things weren't perfect.

We loved the book: the funny mice, the wonderful illustrations, and the sweet story. We read it three times in a row because it was so much fun.

I teach middle school special needs students. I often take a day to read a book and get their opinions on the character(s) and their reaction to what he or she did.

Grandmother Rosa is preparing a birthday party for her grand daughter, Catalina. Like the room in her heart for loved ones, she has lots of room in her tiny house for the party. But this doesn't include MICE! The very mice that are in her way (she's always setting traps) are the very mice who help her when she forgets something important (to put candy in the pinata). The mice and Abuelita become friends! The text introduces Spanish vocabulary seamlessly as the party preparations proceed through a week. A fun little story full of love and rich, happy illustrations. Just try to read it only once, just try! More mice, more beans, a second helping, please? Although this story is about a birthday party, it would be a great choice for Cinco De Mayo as well in that it is so full of culture, art, and language.

I read this book to my class of 1st grade students, many of whom are bilingual (Spanish/English). They really enjoyed this story upon first reading and re-reading. The plot and drawings allow the students to make predictions about what is going to happen next - thus allowing them to interact with the book in a dynamic way. The scattering of Spanish words and Latino/a culture helped to encourage the interest of my student - both those who are Latino/a, and those who are not. Overall, it is a cute, fun, sweet story about a loving and forgetful grandmother preparing a birthday party for her granddaughter.

My children, now 6.5 years, have loved this book since they were 4. It's simply and wonderfully written, has a number of great messages between the lines, introduces non-Latino kids to a bit of language and culture, and the illustrations are delightful as well as quite brilliant. We notice new things in the pictures every time we read it, which adds a treasure-hunt aspect to our readings. This is one of my daughter's all time favorite books.

Joe Cepeda illustrates Pam Munoz Ryan's Mice & Beans, a zany story of mice who become involved in the food preparations at Rose Maria's house. Days of the week, party plans, and a plan for Mexican food make for rollicking action and fun accounts.

A big-hearted abuela prepares for her grandchild's birthday, carefully planning, cooking and setting a mouse trap each eve.
Unknown to her, a family of mice copy her preparations for their own party and save by the day by filling the pinata when she forgets. Sprinkled with Spanish words, there is a glossary at the end. This is a warm and funny recipe for a festive family celebration.

Ryan has created a wonderfully wacky grandmother in this tale of mice and beans. However, it falls short of its promise when readers are left trying to figure out just how and why she concludes she's had a bit of help in preparing the pinata. Vibrant illustrations help the text, but again, a single piece of candy near a mouse hole really doesn't add up to sufficient evidence to draw such a conclusion. Disappointing.