Six-year-old Ana helps out when her family makes tamales at Christmas by mixing the dough. But her older sister, Lidia, is eight, “so she gets to spread the dough on the corn husk leaves. I wish I was eight, so that my hands would be big enough to spread the dough just right.” Ana begins imagining what she will be able to do when she is older. Thinking about being eight, then ten, twelve, fourteen, sixteen, and eighteen, she considers the many new things to look forward to, from riding her bike to school at ten, to not being scared of anything at twelve, to driving at sixteen. And at each age she thinks about “when Christmas comes around” and what new role she will have in making tamales. Still, Lidia will always be two years older and, it seems, always have the more coveted role in tamale making. So when Ana images herself eighteen, she decides she will open her own tamale factory. “Lidia will be twenty. If she wants to, she can come and work for me.” Gwendolyn Zepeda’s original, highly appealing bilingual (English/Spanish) story is filled with familiar longing and child-centered details, and features warm, colorful paintings by April Ward. Highly Commended, 2009 Charlotte Zolotow Award (Ages 6–9)

My name is Ana. Every year, my family makes tamales for Christmas. This year, I am six, so I get to mix the dough, which is made of cornmeal. My sister Lidia is eight, so she gets to spread the dough on the corn husk leaves. I wish I was eight, so that my hands would be big enough to spread the dough just right--not too thick and not too thin. And so the years pass, and Ana turns eight, ten, twelve, fourteen, sixteen. But every year, big sister Lidia is always two years older. Ana envies her elder sibling and wishes she could do what Lidia does: put just the right amount of meat inside the tamales and roll them up; steam the tamales without scalding herself with the hot, hot steam; chop and cook the meat for the tamales without cutting or burning her hands. When she turns eighteen, though, Ana knows she will keep making tamales and she will be able to do all of the steps herself in her very own factory. When Christmas comes around, Ana will deliver tamales to all of her customers around the world, in delivery trucks that say Ana's Tamales. And maybe Ana will even let Lidia work for her. Gwendolyn Zepeda's rhythmic prose is combined with April Ward's bright illustrations to create an affectionate and amusing story about sibling relationships that introduces an important Hispanic holiday tradition -- making tamales!