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notbanana's review
3.0
Chato's Kitchen / Gary Soto / 1997
Genre: fiction
Format: picture book
Plot Summary: To get the "ratoncitos," little mice who have moved into the barrio, to come to his house, Chato the cat prepares all kinds of good food: fajitas, frijoles, salsa, enchiladas, and more. But he is not prepared for the unexpected guest who accompanies the mice.
Considerations: no red flags
Review Citation: Book List, March 1995
"Chato invites the new neighbor mice for dinner--to be his dinner. He cooks a delicious spread to go with the tasty morsels of mice. But when his guests arrive with their friend from the old neighborhood, the tables are turned: Sausage turns out to be a long, low-riding, skinny dog, and it's the cats who quake in fear. Kids will get a lot of fun out of the sweet reversal and the comic storytelling. There's a glossary of Spanish words, but it's the characters and their talk that give the story its special flavor."
Selection Source: Pura Belpre Award Winner
Recommended age: 4-8
Genre: fiction
Format: picture book
Plot Summary: To get the "ratoncitos," little mice who have moved into the barrio, to come to his house, Chato the cat prepares all kinds of good food: fajitas, frijoles, salsa, enchiladas, and more. But he is not prepared for the unexpected guest who accompanies the mice.
Considerations: no red flags
Review Citation: Book List, March 1995
"Chato invites the new neighbor mice for dinner--to be his dinner. He cooks a delicious spread to go with the tasty morsels of mice. But when his guests arrive with their friend from the old neighborhood, the tables are turned: Sausage turns out to be a long, low-riding, skinny dog, and it's the cats who quake in fear. Kids will get a lot of fun out of the sweet reversal and the comic storytelling. There's a glossary of Spanish words, but it's the characters and their talk that give the story its special flavor."
Selection Source: Pura Belpre Award Winner
Recommended age: 4-8
boureemusique's review
4.0
I enjoyed the author's poetry and got excited when I saw he does kids' books. This one has fun language and a mischievous plot without trying to pound your head in with a moral. Great Spanish vocab for the kiddos and fun illustrations by Susan Guevara.
libraryjen's review
3.0
A bit of a trickster tale, great illustrations but the story just didn't grab me.
octavia_cade's review
3.0
Oh, this is fun. A family of mice move into a new neighbourhood, and get a dinner invitation from the cat next door. (I'm sure you can see where this is going.) You can also see the twist, because when the mice ask to bring a guest the story relies on the assumption that this guest is another tasty, sausage-named mouse. Small kids are likely to fall for that but I'm not, so no surprises there either. But I don't mind, because the illustrations are so entertaining, and the story-telling itself so zippy and slyly amusing, that presentation ends up being far more important than plot. As is frequently the case with picture books, to be fair.
jaasato's review against another edition
5.0
I love that this book is written with natural sounding code-switching. It draws on Chicano culture and is a twist on the good ol cat and mouse story.
notbanana's review against another edition
3.0
Chato's Kitchen / Gary Soto / 1997
Genre: fiction
Format: picture book
Plot Summary: To get the "ratoncitos," little mice who have moved into the barrio, to come to his house, Chato the cat prepares all kinds of good food: fajitas, frijoles, salsa, enchiladas, and more. But he is not prepared for the unexpected guest who accompanies the mice.
Considerations: no red flags
Review Citation: Book List, March 1995
"Chato invites the new neighbor mice for dinner--to be his dinner. He cooks a delicious spread to go with the tasty morsels of mice. But when his guests arrive with their friend from the old neighborhood, the tables are turned: Sausage turns out to be a long, low-riding, skinny dog, and it's the cats who quake in fear. Kids will get a lot of fun out of the sweet reversal and the comic storytelling. There's a glossary of Spanish words, but it's the characters and their talk that give the story its special flavor."
Selection Source: Pura Belpre Award Winner
Recommended age: 4-8
Genre: fiction
Format: picture book
Plot Summary: To get the "ratoncitos," little mice who have moved into the barrio, to come to his house, Chato the cat prepares all kinds of good food: fajitas, frijoles, salsa, enchiladas, and more. But he is not prepared for the unexpected guest who accompanies the mice.
Considerations: no red flags
Review Citation: Book List, March 1995
"Chato invites the new neighbor mice for dinner--to be his dinner. He cooks a delicious spread to go with the tasty morsels of mice. But when his guests arrive with their friend from the old neighborhood, the tables are turned: Sausage turns out to be a long, low-riding, skinny dog, and it's the cats who quake in fear. Kids will get a lot of fun out of the sweet reversal and the comic storytelling. There's a glossary of Spanish words, but it's the characters and their talk that give the story its special flavor."
Selection Source: Pura Belpre Award Winner
Recommended age: 4-8
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