Yum! ¡Mmm! ¡Qué Rico! America's Sproutings Yum! ¡Mmm! ¡Qué Rico! America's Sproutings Spanish
Awards
2008 Amérias Award for Children’s and Young Adult Literature Commended Title 2008-2009 Texas Bluebonnet Award (TBA) Master List
2008 ALA Notable Children's Books
2008 Chicago Public Library's Best of the Best Books
2008 Bank Street Best Children's Books of the Year
2007 Lasting Connections, Book Links
2008-2009 Great Lakes Great Books Award Master List
2014 AudioFile Earphones Award (audio edition)

Teachers & Librarians
Find curriculum activities for
Yum! ¡Mmm! ¡Qué Rico!.
If you have an activity or activities to share, please email these along with your name and school or library name.

Download a teacher's guide from the publisher, Lee & Low Books.

Pizza Tidbit
Although the word pizza is probably of Italian origin and initially referred to a cake or pie, the pizza as we know it needed tomatoes from the Americas. Spanish explorers took the strange red vegetables to Italy, and in southern Italy, flatbreads with tomatoes on top became popular, and we know why, right? YUM! In 1889, baker Raffaele Esposito made a special pizza in the colors of the Italian flag for Queen Margherita: red tomatoes, green basil, and white mozzarella. Pizza margherita is popular at pizzerias though most of us don't know its history. The Italian word for a pizza maker is pizzaiolo.
2017: 10th anniversary

Yum! ¡Mmm! ¡Qué Rico! America's Sproutings
Lee & Low Books, illustrated by Rafael López
Audio edition published by Live Oak Media

Yum! ¡Mmm! ¡Qué Rico! Brotes de las Américas

Smear nutty butter,
then jelly. Gooey party,
my sandwich and me.

Peanuts, blueberries, corn, potatoes, tomatoes, and more-here is a luscious collection of haiku celebrating foods native to the Americas. Brimming with imagination and fun, these poems capture the tasty essence of foods that have delighted, united, and enriched our lives for centuries. Exuberant illustrations bring to life the delicious spirit of the haiku, making Yum! ¡Mmm! ¡Qué Rico! America's Sproutings an eye-popping, mouth-watering treat. Open it and dig in!

Watch a video webcast from the Library of Congress featuring Pat Mora and Rafael López receiving the 2007 Américas Award for Yum! ¡Mmm! ¡Qué Rico! America's Sproutings.

Lee & Low Books has produced a video of Pat Mora where she talks about her writing and in particular, Yum! ¡Mmm! ¡Qué Rico! America's Sproutings.

Highlighted Reviews
Green star icon"This inventive stew of food haiku celebrates the indigenous foods of the Americas."—starred review, Booklist

"In this cross-curricular treat, imaginative, double-page, lushly rendered acrylic illustrations on wood panels are paired with playful haikus and a paragraph of information to introduce 14 foods indigenous to the Americas, including blueberries, pumpkins, and corn."—Curriculum Connections, Spring 2008

"Mora's descriptive poetry features wonderful word choices and gets it right to the essence of each food … What makes this collection especially memorable are López' bright, double-page paintings on wood panel, which vibrantly show children and families enjoying each food. Perfect for sharing as part of the curriculum or just for fun."— Book Links
Read more reviews show

In these interviews with WETV's ¡Colorín Colorado!, Pat shares the an excerpt from Yum! ¡Mmm! ¡Qué Rico! and tells the story behind the book:

        
Art from Yum! ¡Mmm! ¡Qué Rico! America's Sproutings Audio edition:
The audio edition of Yum! has won a 2014 AudioFile Earphones Award! Here's what they had to say:

"How elegantly Mora's exploration of edibles from the Americas plays into the audiobook format! Gabriella Cavallero's narration is elegant as well. For each delicacy--whether it's blueberry, potato, or papaya, to name just a few--there is a selection of factual tidbits (easily glossed over in book format) followed by a haiku. In the audio format, one's interest is piqued by the information--700 million pounds of peanut butter consumed in the United States yearly, for example. Thus one is primed for the poetic images to follow--"a gooey party, my sandwich and me." Cavallero's interest is evident as she shares the facts, and she uses the breadth of her vocal register to present the related haikus. Her elongated phrases, staccato words, and prolonged pauses are a pleasure."—AudioFile Magazine