While most children grow up hearing the mantra “don’t play with your food,” the pint-size children in this poetic romp must play with their food to create the mounds of mouth-watering guacamole they so desire. Brimming with metaphors, this rollicking cooking poem follows a trio of children as they go through the steps of turning avocados, limes, salt, and cilantro into guacamole. Argueta’s prose is sure to have children soaring while Sada’s cheerful, oil illustrations bring the poet’s verde ode to life and leave children shouting “¡Guacamole, quérico quacamole!” Recommended.

Guacamole: Un poema para cocinar/ A Cooking Poem. Jorge Argueta. Illus. by Margarita Sada. Translation by Elisa Amado. Toronto: Groundwood Books, 2012. Unpaged. $18.95 (Hardcover). ISBN 978-1-55498-133-5. Grades 1-3. Bilingual Spanish and English.