¡Vamos!: Let’s Go Eat
by Raúl the Third; illus. by the author; color by Elaine Bay
Primary    Versify/Houghton    40 pp.    g
3/20    978-1-328-55704-9    $14.99
e-book ed.  978-0-358-33070-7    $9.99

Little Lobo and his canine sidekick Bernabé, whom we met in ¡Vamos!: Let’s Go to the Market (rev. 3/19), are getting ready for another day in their delivery business when they receive an urgent request from their favorite wrestler, El Toro. The luchadores are training for a big show, and they are hungry! Thankfully, Little Lobo knows all the best food trucks where they can get enough tacos, carnitas, elotes, tamales, and burritos (and enough choices for dessert) to satisfy the energy needs of a group of wrestling stars. Little Lobo, Bernabé, their rooster friend Kooky Dooky, and all the characters in this diverting adventure are cartoony animals or imaginary creatures, and a straightforward narration is complemented by plenty of comic vignettes that advance the plot with dialogue in English, Spanish, and Spanglish. The busy illustrations are full of context clues and detailed elements. The characters are animated, and the scenes are vibrant with activity and movement — from a very stretchy cheese to a stack of flying tortillas. The abundance of labels and street signs makes this book a vocabulary lesson, too, on ingredients, food trucks, and culinary delicacies.

From the March/April 2020 Horn Book Magazine.