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Arroz con cosas
Are you learning Spanish? You can read this book on your own!
ARROZ CON COSAS is a funny story of a 75-year-old retired cook who wants to become an Instagram influencer to preserve her culinary tradition: la paella valenciana.
ARROZ CON COSAS is an hilarious story about food, Spanish tradition and culture written with accessible vocabulary for teenagers, young adults and adults beginning their Spanish language learning journey.
Success is not about age, it's about action!
Remei is a 75-year-old cook who is an expert in making the one and only paella: la paella valenciana. Paella is a culinary icon for Valencians and for all of Spain. Remei is proud and champions her tradition at the top of her lungs. Because, if you are going to cook paella, you need to do it right! Indeed, Remei has good intentions, but she always ends up sticking her nose where it's not wanted and giving advice left and right.
Now retired, with a phone and plenty of time on her hands, Remei discovers that many influencers on Instagram are destroying the culinary tradition of paella. They are cooking trendy 'paella': sushi 'paella'; 'paella' pizza; 'paella' sandwiches; 'paella' with ingredients that do not make sense like avocado, eggs, chorizo, fruit, ketchup; even ‘paella’ in a can! Remei is outraged. These influencers are making 'arroz con cosas' - Rice with things. ‘How awful! This can't be allowed!’
So with no internet experience, no followers, and no influence beyond her son, her restaurant, and her town, Remei decides to become an Instagram influencer. She wants to share the authentic paella with the world. At her age? How will she combat the flood of 'rice with things' that saturates social networks? Will she fulfill her mission?
ARROZ CON COSAS touches on the themes of sharing and preserving culinary culture, respect for our elders, and that one is never too old to use and set the latest trends on social media.
Reading is an amazing way to study the language. Learn Spanish the easy way.
Learn Spanish through reading with ARROZ CON COSAS!
What does this book give you?
✓ Helps you expand your vocabulary in Spanish with important words about food and cooking, body parts, nationalities, and social media.
✓ Accessible vocabulary at your level that uses the most frequent words in Spanish to help you progress confidently.
✓ Manageable and progressive introduction of the vocabulary chapter after chapter.
✓ Provides you with lots of exposure to the most common verbs in Spanish in present tense: be, have, want, need, can, make, look, see, say, answer, know, write, open, look for, give, take, take out, put, put in, help, laugh and share.
✓ Rewarding long story for beginners written with only 89 vocabulary words different from English and 61 words that are similar in Spanish and English.
✓ 36 hilarious illustrations that support comprehension and help you create a mental picture when reading.
✓ Culturally relevant illustrations by an award-winner comic artist from Valencia.
✓ Helpful side notes to support the comprehension of the new vocabulary words and the understanding of cultural references.
✓ A complete bilingual word list of all the words used in the story.
✓ A step-by-step illustrated recipe so that you learn to cook the authentic paella and enjoy its exquisite flavour anywhere in the world.
✓ In Easy-to-Read format for maximum reading pleasure!
You can read this! Pick up your copy of ARROZ CON COSAS and start reading in Spanish right now!
ARROZ CON COSAS is a funny story of a 75-year-old retired cook who wants to become an Instagram influencer to preserve her culinary tradition: la paella valenciana.
ARROZ CON COSAS is an hilarious story about food, Spanish tradition and culture written with accessible vocabulary for teenagers, young adults and adults beginning their Spanish language learning journey.
Success is not about age, it's about action!
Remei is a 75-year-old cook who is an expert in making the one and only paella: la paella valenciana. Paella is a culinary icon for Valencians and for all of Spain. Remei is proud and champions her tradition at the top of her lungs. Because, if you are going to cook paella, you need to do it right! Indeed, Remei has good intentions, but she always ends up sticking her nose where it's not wanted and giving advice left and right.
Now retired, with a phone and plenty of time on her hands, Remei discovers that many influencers on Instagram are destroying the culinary tradition of paella. They are cooking trendy 'paella': sushi 'paella'; 'paella' pizza; 'paella' sandwiches; 'paella' with ingredients that do not make sense like avocado, eggs, chorizo, fruit, ketchup; even ‘paella’ in a can! Remei is outraged. These influencers are making 'arroz con cosas' - Rice with things. ‘How awful! This can't be allowed!’
So with no internet experience, no followers, and no influence beyond her son, her restaurant, and her town, Remei decides to become an Instagram influencer. She wants to share the authentic paella with the world. At her age? How will she combat the flood of 'rice with things' that saturates social networks? Will she fulfill her mission?
ARROZ CON COSAS touches on the themes of sharing and preserving culinary culture, respect for our elders, and that one is never too old to use and set the latest trends on social media.
Reading is an amazing way to study the language. Learn Spanish the easy way.
Learn Spanish through reading with ARROZ CON COSAS!
What does this book give you?
✓ Helps you expand your vocabulary in Spanish with important words about food and cooking, body parts, nationalities, and social media.
✓ Accessible vocabulary at your level that uses the most frequent words in Spanish to help you progress confidently.
✓ Manageable and progressive introduction of the vocabulary chapter after chapter.
✓ Provides you with lots of exposure to the most common verbs in Spanish in present tense: be, have, want, need, can, make, look, see, say, answer, know, write, open, look for, give, take, take out, put, put in, help, laugh and share.
✓ Rewarding long story for beginners written with only 89 vocabulary words different from English and 61 words that are similar in Spanish and English.
✓ 36 hilarious illustrations that support comprehension and help you create a mental picture when reading.
✓ Culturally relevant illustrations by an award-winner comic artist from Valencia.
✓ Helpful side notes to support the comprehension of the new vocabulary words and the understanding of cultural references.
✓ A complete bilingual word list of all the words used in the story.
✓ A step-by-step illustrated recipe so that you learn to cook the authentic paella and enjoy its exquisite flavour anywhere in the world.
✓ In Easy-to-Read format for maximum reading pleasure!
You can read this! Pick up your copy of ARROZ CON COSAS and start reading in Spanish right now!
126 pages, Paperback
Published July 21, 2022
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
February 2, 2023
A recipe for engaging and building readers!
With Arroz con cosas, Patricia Martí Torres & Margarita Pérez García bring us a compelling story, rich in culture, with authentic language that is easy to read, and delightful illustrations that keep readers engaged and entertained.
Martí and Pérez collaborate brilliantly to create an irresistible character in Remei: one-time owner of a paella restaurant who finds retirement has severely limited her influence on the creation of authentic paella valenciana. Her son doesn’t want Remei poking her nose into his kitchen now that he’s taken over the family business, so he hands her a cell phone and tells her to share her advice with the rest of the world. Little does he expect that Remei will ignite a firestorm on social media, resulting in an international paella competition in their home town that expands Remei’s influence to millions of followers on Instagram!
The authors achieve maximum drama in this engaging story while using a small number of high-frequency words in Spanish that, combined with Fedde Carroza’s expressive illustrations, convey all the fun and emotion in easily comprehensible language. They do this while artfully threading the story with repeated exposure to useful expressions, like ‘mete las narices', and ‘de categoría’, and ‘qué barbaridad”, as well as topical language about social media and food.
The story provokes further thought and discussion about regional pride, personal ambition, the place of elders in society, the role of social media, and styles of humor in language and in images.
Patricia Martí brings the flavor and spirit of Valencia and her passion for authentic paella to the story. Margarita Pérez adds her expertise in creating Easy-to-Read language learner literature through judicious choice of font and font size, reader-friendly line length with strategic line breaks, and purposeful placement of side glosses.
Together they have found the recipe for engaging and building readers from the earliest levels of Spanish acquisition.
With Arroz con cosas, Patricia Martí Torres & Margarita Pérez García bring us a compelling story, rich in culture, with authentic language that is easy to read, and delightful illustrations that keep readers engaged and entertained.
Martí and Pérez collaborate brilliantly to create an irresistible character in Remei: one-time owner of a paella restaurant who finds retirement has severely limited her influence on the creation of authentic paella valenciana. Her son doesn’t want Remei poking her nose into his kitchen now that he’s taken over the family business, so he hands her a cell phone and tells her to share her advice with the rest of the world. Little does he expect that Remei will ignite a firestorm on social media, resulting in an international paella competition in their home town that expands Remei’s influence to millions of followers on Instagram!
The authors achieve maximum drama in this engaging story while using a small number of high-frequency words in Spanish that, combined with Fedde Carroza’s expressive illustrations, convey all the fun and emotion in easily comprehensible language. They do this while artfully threading the story with repeated exposure to useful expressions, like ‘mete las narices', and ‘de categoría’, and ‘qué barbaridad”, as well as topical language about social media and food.
The story provokes further thought and discussion about regional pride, personal ambition, the place of elders in society, the role of social media, and styles of humor in language and in images.
Patricia Martí brings the flavor and spirit of Valencia and her passion for authentic paella to the story. Margarita Pérez adds her expertise in creating Easy-to-Read language learner literature through judicious choice of font and font size, reader-friendly line length with strategic line breaks, and purposeful placement of side glosses.
Together they have found the recipe for engaging and building readers from the earliest levels of Spanish acquisition.
October 25, 2022
This is the fifth book I read of one of these authors, and she never disappoints! Lovely story with an easy flow and fantastic for Spanish learners who want more than just a story. I won’t leave any spoilers here, but you’ll find this quite entertaining and educational!
December 12, 2022
Es un libro muy didáctico y fácil sobretodo si tienes una noción de inglés/español porque te ayuda a conocerr expresiones tipicas del idioma y además con un toque de humor que hacen la lectura y el aprendizaje muy ameno
Lo recomiendo a niños y mayores!
Lo recomiendo a niños y mayores!
December 24, 2022
I love this book for learning and teaching Spanish! Not only is an interesting and fun story, but also shows many cultural aspects, respect for tradition and the identity of a country. It also displays typical Valencian expressions showing the linguistic richness that Spain has.
Thanks!
Thanks!
October 17, 2022
What an entertaining and educational book!
We read it together with our youngest daughter and has become one of her most favourite titles.
Highly recommend it.
We read it together with our youngest daughter and has become one of her most favourite titles.
Highly recommend it.
January 18, 2024
this was really cute and funny!! I highly recommend it for people who are beginner Spanish learners. it's hard to find books like this.
May 16, 2023
This was a fun book about paella. Sadly, I had never heard of paella before reading this book. It was a funny read. My Spanish isn’t good enough to understand all of it, but that’s not a fault of the author.
November 4, 2024
Cute story for Spanish language learners about a grandma who wants to make sure the world knows the real paella, not modern paella that’s become popular on Instagram. Read for my Spanish classroom library.
Read
December 13, 2025Spanish class is just so . . . Great. I do especially love when my teacher assigns me more work because I’m slightly ahead of everyone else. Yes, yes. That is indeed my favorite part.
March 12, 2026
Very cute book and perfectly on my level!
October 31, 2025
All paella that I ever had was with seafood.
This says that it is with various types of meat.
This says that it is with various types of meat.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews