The Day It Snowed Tortillas / El día que nevó tortillas: Folktales told in Spanish and English

This book is one of a limited number of dual language stories that I've found. My friend in Guatemala helps me with Spanish, and I help him with English. It works for us to have materials that are set up this way. We prefer dialogue, but conversational books in both languages are even harder to find. "The Day It Snowed Tortillas" has simple folktales that are not too difficult for us as intermediate level learners. While the stories are simple, they are not too childish. If you are trying to learn English or Spanish on your own, then having the translation right on the adjacent page makes understanding easy. However, the book is intended for a "Middle Reader" or "Young Adult," and is not meant as a beginning reader. It's a very good resource.

This book is outstanding both as a learning tool for Spanish and simply the joy of a good story. The problem with many bilingual books is they are based on classic Spanish literature, which much like Shakespeare, is not written in how people speak Spanish today, especially in Mexico and the south-west U.S.. Instead, the author wrote these stories recently and in, as far as I can tell, modern Mexican Spanish. I think he uses a little poetic license here and there, but the intermediate Spanish student like me should have no trouble understanding it. I'm trying hard to teach myself Spanish, and this book has been an enormous help and pleasure to read. I hope that Joe Hayes publishes more bilingual books in the future.

I had this book when I was just a child myself. I bought it so that I could read it to my daughter. She's probably still a bit young for it, but I really enjoy reading it with her. Since they are mostly latino fokelore stories, they are different from the fairy tales she's typically used to. I think the fact that I remember reading it over 20 years ago speaks volumes.

fun stories

I purchased this book to help me learn spanish. And I really believe it's working. My spanish is very basic, however as I read through this book I'm less and less reliant on the translation or at least correct in my interpretation. This is a book of clever/cute short spanish tales. Side by Side in English and in Spanish. How the story would be told in Spanish and how the story would be told in English. I recommend it to anyone trying to use reading to learn a language.

I love this book! I have taught in K-12 and this was always my "to go to emergency" book in case of a failed lesson or last minute killing time. Also, as whenever I would period sub, I would take this with me just in case there weren't lesson plans. So many great stories packed into a little book.

I remember Mr. Hayes coming to my elementary school to tell some of these stories found in this book. In particular, "The Little Ant," was my personal favorite because of Mr. Hayes' amazing way he could captivate an elementary school audience with his story telling. Now, 20+ years later I am buying this book for my child. Thank you Mr. Hayes for such wonderful memories.

I am a third grade teacher and purchased this book as a read aloud for my class. The first story, The Day It Snowed Tortillas, is engaging for the kids. Other stories contained some content that I was uncomfortable reading to the students. Some stories included drunk characters, or "stupid" charachters that were taken advantage of. It is probably more appropriate for a bit older students.

I bought this book ( and its companion The Coyote Under the Table) to share with my sponsor child in Honduras, because it is written in both English and Spanish. He will have a hard copy and I a Kindle copy. I wound up also buying a hard copy for my granddaughter in the US and we read it together over Skype. The stories are relatively short but full of fun and twists.