THREE STALKS OF CORN

Angelica Corrales lives in the old part of Pico Rivera, California, with her grandmother, an excellent cook who tells Angelica corn legends as she makes tortillas; gives the little girl her prized collection of corn husk dolls; and makes such delicacies for the fiesta that the school principal asks her to teach a class in Mexican cooking. Artist Politi's sentimental primitivism is less cloying here than in many of his picture books, and if Mrs. Corrales' early explanations to Angelica sound more like a travelogue than a kitchen conversation, her cooking class is just what it should be. There's no story at all but, with recipes for enchilada and tacos fillings (only) appended, this could make a sustaining social studies supplement. (A pity, though, that Grandmother's personal tortilla lesson doesn't come with it.)