Tacos Today: El Toro & Friends: A Graphic Novel

El Toro & Friends #4

by Raúl the Third

“Outrageously creative! Kids will drink in every imaginative detail in El Toro’s wild world!” —Jeff Kinney, #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series From New York Times bestselling, three-time Pura Belpré Award–winning author-illustrator Raúl the Third, Tacos Today follows the young luchadores on the hunt for their favorite lunch in an action-packed, graphic-novel-style El Toro & Friends paper-over-board reader from the Eisner-nominated World of ¡Vamos! It’s lunchtime for young El Toro and his friends—and each one is looking forward to a different kind of taco, their favorite! The luchadores take a break from their training and head into town to eat. When they count their lunch money and discover they don’t have enough for tacos, they will have to work together on a creative, fun solution to earn plenty of dinero for a delicious all-you-can-eat spectacular! Flavored with Spanish phrases and topped with plenty of humor, this early reader graphic novel is essential for those who want an action-packed story and lots of laughs.

Genres: Picture Books, Food, Graphic Novels, Spanish Literature, Fiction, Childrens, Juvenile

56 pages, Hardcover

Published March 28, 2023

About the author

Raúl The Third is an award-winning illustrator, author, and artist living in Boston. His work centers around the contemporary Mexican-American experience and his memories of growing up in El Paso, Texas and Ciudad Juarez, Mexico.

Reviews

[Rod Brown · Rating 2 out of 5]

A thin story about one-dimensional characters going out for tacos. This is like the eighth book in a two-series shared universe that I have not been following, and apparently it is not the best jumping-on point, especially since most of the characters don't even get named until the second half of the book.

Meh.


(Best of 2023 Project: I'm reading all the graphic novels that made it onto NPR's Books We Love 2023: Favorite Comics and Graphic Novels list.)

[Raina · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love the work by this team so much! Love that they're doing work across many sectors of kid-lit. I read four of the El Toro & Friends books before taking them out to local schools as I promoted our upcoming library-sponsored Lucha Libre Wrestling Show at a park in the summer of 2024.

This one ended up being the one I focused on talking about in my presentations.
Each of El Toro's friends likes a different kind of taco. Lengua, huevos, pescado, semillas, and muchas moscas! It was fun to see kid faces get confused as I went down the list.
Fantastic illustration style and color work.
I specifically appreciate the way this series integrates Spanish text. It's not exactly 1:1 bilingual, but most things are duplicated, so there are lots of opportunities to learn new words in either direction.

Hooray super cool early readers!

[Bruce · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's lunch break for the students at Ricky Raton’s School of Luca. El Toro, Oink and the other students are as hungry as they can be and imagine what kind of tacos they want to eat. But there’s a problem. Nobody has enough money. So what do these young luchadores do? What they do best, of course, they entertain. “We can use our skills to make dinero for tacos!” They put on a spectacular show for the passengers on the bus on the way to the plaza, and for everyone at the taco stand. The crowd goes wild and showers them with coins.

It's fifty-six pages of colorful fun in English and Spanish.

[Roben · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love, love, love Raúl the Third's books! They incorporate Spanish seamlessly into the text. They have wonderfully busy illustrations that invite the reader to find something new each time they read the book. And they are fun and positive.
In this book, it is lunch time for our adorable luchadores in training. And everyone wants tacos! Tongue tacos. Fish tacos. Fly tacos. So many tacos but -- no money. So the group decides to use their luchadore skills to entertain diners at the local taco plaza and raise the money they need!

Yum! What a fun book to read on Taco Tuesday! Though I'm guessing no one wants fly or birdseed tacos. I would try tongue or cactus though!

[Maria · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this one
For a kid's book, the vibrant colors and use of the large text was fantastic and easy for you readers to read and follow.

More than anything I loved that it was bilingual and used English and Spanish throughout the 56 pages to tell the story of Toro and his friends as they discover they don't have enough money for tacos! And tacos are important!!!!

Filled with plenty of humor, adventure, friendship, and a really creative idea to solve their problem and I, again, totally loved the colors and character designs.

[Sonia Wadhawan · Rating 4 out of 5]

When kids learn to make money off their shills, they become confident and proud. The book is about El Toro and friends who want to eat tacos for lunch but, unfortunately, do not have enough money. They make their money with their show performance. The illustrations are very colorful and easy for kids to read.

[Ryan Laferney · Rating 4 out of 5]

A wonderful bilingual story about El Toro and all his frineds using their wrestling skills to earn dineros for tacos! Wonderfully illustrated while also teaching literacy in relation to sequential storytelling, this is an excellent book.

[Bethe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Be sure to read this on a full stomach - or you will be craving tacos - of many kinds! Putting on an impromptu wrestling show can earn your lunch money. I’m concerned for the little chicken riding the party bus - he’s wearing a T-shirt that says “future taco”

[Ellice · Rating 3 out of 5]

A group of luchadores (Mexican wrestlers) go out to lunch, but have to put on a major demonstration of their skills to raise money for tacos. The illustrations are colorful and fun, and the story shares a lot of Spanish-language phrases as it proceeds. Cute.

[Bridgen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was so cute and I love the art. There was really a lot going on though and the images were a bit hard to decipher.

[Teresa]

So cute! I love the inclusion of the Spanish.

[Heidi Jensen · Rating 1 out of 5]

So dumb.

[Veronica Rivera · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was cute. Written in both English and Spanish in terms children can understand. It's definitely a good book for even the big in each of us.

[Kate Carter · Rating 4 out of 5]

My kids are young and like graphic novels, so this was fun and included some exposure to Spanish. The story line was there, but maybe better for 7+ year olds.