Nacho’s Nachos

Nacho’s Nachos is a short yet wonderfully informative story, with some of the best illustration I’ve seen. The book is clearly written for preteens, going down as young as kindergarteners. The given reading level is 8 to 12 years.

This is a story that I doubt a lot of adults are aware of. I learned a few things from it, and I consider myself just a wee bit smarter than I was before reading it. The vocabulary is appropriate for the grade level, and the pace is subtle enough that a parent could easily read this book to a child.

Physically, the book is amazing! The color scheme throughout the book, including the jacket and the illustrations, is modeled on the colors in the original dish of nachos – yellows and greens, with reds for good measure. Speaking of the illustrations, I’d be willing to wager that someone unaware of the story could get a gist of it just by looking at the illustrations.

For every set of facing pages, the illustration covers both pages, with the text being only on a portion of one of the pages. Thus, I think the illustrations could easily hold a young child’s attention while a parent read the text.

If you’re planning on reading this story to a child, I suggest you have the fixings available for a plate of nachos, because the child may be craving them before the story is done. I know I was. If you don’t know how to prepare the original nachos, don’t worry – the original recipe is included at the end of the book.

I heartily recommend this book to anyone with young children. Also, if you think that Nacho’s Nachos is just a play on words, you could learn a few things from this story, too!