Paco and the Giant Chile Plant

Polette, K. (2008). Paco and the Giant Chile Plant. Illustrated by Elizabeth Dulemba. McHenry, IL: Raven Tree Press.

Brief Annotation: Paco trades his cow for magic chile seeds, and plants them behind his house. The seeds grow into a golden chile plant for Paco to climb. At the top, Paco encounters the giant! The giant squeezes chile juice in his own eye and begins to cry, revealing the giant’s true identity….Paco’s father! They climb down the plant and chop it down so no one else eats a golden chile and turns into a giant.

Genre: Folklore

Grade Level: Grade Pre-K to Grade 5

Readers who will like this: Students who show an interest in folk tales will like the interesting spin this book puts on the traditional Jack and the Beanstalk book. The book also uses a number of words in Spanish, so children who have an interest in, or are learning to speak Spanish will like this book as well.

Response/Rating (1-4): A 4 indeed! I really enjoy how the book incorporated words into the story. This would be a wonderful book to share with English Language Learners who’s native language is Spanish as it would be a way to introduce other folklore into their reading.