Chato's Kitchen

Written by Gary Soto

Narrated by Cheech Marin

Chato invites a family of mice to his house to share a tasty meal but to his surprise ends up eating tortillas and not them for dinner!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Weston Woods
• Release date: Jan 1, 1999
• ISBN: 9780545786034

Gary Soto

Gary Soto's first book for young readers, Baseball in April and Other Stories, won the California Library Association's Beatty Award and was named an ALA Best Book for Young Adults. He has since published many novels, short stories, plays, and poetry collections for adults and young people. He lives in Berkeley, California. Visit his website at garysoto.com.

Reviews for Chato's Kitchen

[gloriasidney · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This book is about two cats named Chato and his friend Novio, who reside in a neighborhood filled with tasty mice. Chato the cat invites five mice over to his house for dinner and prepares the food all day with the help from Novio. The family of mice agree to come, but they inform Chato they will be bringing another guest to accompany them. Chato rejoices at the thought of having six mice in his house, but he quickly learns that the mice have a trick up their sleeve! This bilingual book is a Pura Belpre Award winner and would be great to use as an example of predicting and to incorporate bilingualism into the classroom. The colorful pictures capture the reader's attention and the trickery within the story makes it memorable.

[lbrink2 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I have mixed feelings about this book. One reason I like this book is the illustrations. The illustrations are very colorful and exaggerate what is going on in the text. These types of illustrations will help keep the interest of young children. One reason I do not like this book is the writing and language. At times, the writing is choppy and does not flow well from one thought or idea to the next. Some of the language used is not familiar to many students which can make it harder to read. Words like low-riding, homeboy, and bothersome may confuse young readers.

[lpierson14 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

This book is colorfully illustrated and the language is a mix of some Spanish and English. It is written in an informal tone. A clever cat believe his inviting his new neighbors over as dinner. He think he is being sneaky and clever but in reality he is the one who gets surprised. In the end hospitality and friendship win out. It is a culturally rich book and the only book I have ever read depicting life in the barrio. It is humorous and amusing. It could be used as part of a multi cultural unit or for point of view.

[kelly.jefferson · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This book was great with colors and the art that was detailed of each character. Although It was about a cat that invited 5 mice over for dinner which he planned to eat and his plan unfolded when the mice brought their friend who was a dog. They enjoyed their dinner and had a great time. My personal reaction to this book was the cat was being very sneaky with planning his feast and it goes to show that being sneaky doesn't always pay off in the long run. Classroom extension: If learning about the mexican culture this would be a great book to read to your students about the different foods. I would make some beans or a few little mexican dishes to let the kids try a variety of mexican dishes.

[ambourg7 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The wide variety of colors used was the first thing that caught my eye. Each and every object from the largest to the smallest all has very detailing features. Every character in the story eyes seems to stay focused on another character. This shows that the characters are afraid to take their eyes off something they either want or are afraid of. The emotion of the different characters facial expressions is stated clearly.