This book is unique since the Spanish words are included throughout the story in a different font. Stella wishes her mom would speak Spanish and be like the other moms in her school/ neighborhood. Stella decides she wants to be a rainbow tulip for her school's May parade. Stella becomes nervous once it was time for her to go out in her costume since she looked different compared to everyone else. She mentioned to her mom about how hard it was for her to be different and her mom compared her situation to the lime sherbet that they were eating; the feeling was sweet and sour all at once. ( )

Summary:
It's about a little girl who were a Mexican- American. Her parents are immemgrations from Mexico and they could only speak Spanish. The little girl felt hard and unconfident in school since she thought she was different from others. On the May Parade, she wears a tulip costume with all the colors of the rainbow tulip. At first she was under pressure and felt upset about herself but then her classmates and teachers all encourage her and her mother stood by her to make her feel good and confident. Finally, she realize that she need not to worried about her difference to others since she was unique and herself and her cultural background had their own value.

Genre:
It's a contemporary realistic fiction since the story told from the little girl's aspect was created by the author. The story happened in a school in modern life. The story was based on today's real live although the plots are not real. All the characters like the little girl and her family her classmates and teachers in this book are ordinary people like us.

Critiques:
1. The medium of this book are paints and color pencil . Images and languages are both elegant and warm.
2. The main whole is about self-identity, immigration issue and understanding between the different culture, which can help students have a deeper thinking about their own cultural identity.

Comments on use:
1. It's a very great book to read aloud on reading class to teach them about love and understanding.
2. Teachers can also ask students discuss about their opinion on their own culture.

This fictional story is about a young girl, Stella, who knows that because of her Mexican heritage she is not the same as the other children in school. She appreciated her culture and background but sometimes finds it hard that she isn’t the same as everyone else. Stella eventually realizes that it’s okay to be different. This would be a good story for students in grades 3-5. This inspiring story discusses diversity and accepting the fact that being different makes you special. ( )

The Rainbow Tulip was a book about a little girl who did not fit in with her classmates. Her family were hispanic and acted differently from the other children's families. There was a spring play and the girls had to dress up as tulips. The little girl wanted to be a rainbow tulip and got embarrassed when she showed up to school a lot more colorful than the other girls. She ended up embracing the fact that her tulip dress was different (like her family), and everyone loved it. This book can be read to all ages, and the lesson that can be learned is to embrace that you're different. ( )

Estelita - or Stella, as she was known at school - loved both her quiet home life, with her gentle mother and book-reading father, and her livelier school (and after-school) life, playing with her friends, and helping her teacher. Speaking Spanish at home, with her Mexican immigrant family, and English at school, with her American friends, she was always aware of the differences that set her apart, but that awareness reached a critical point during her class's celebration of May Day, when she was the only girl dressed in a multi-colored tulip costume, and her mother was the only parent unable to communicate with the teacher, and with the other parents.

Based upon the childhood experiences of Pat Mora's mother, whose parents immigrated from Mexico to El Paso, Texas in 1910, The Rainbow Tulip is a book that sensitively addresses themes - feeling different, being bilingual - that will be very familiar to children of immigrants. I really appreciated the fact that Estelita/Stella was depicted as a happy, well-adjusted child, and that her feelings about being different from her peers were quite mixed: alternately ashamed and proud. The narrative felt very true to life, as a result, and will have relevance for the widest range of readers. The accompanying illustrations by Elizabeth Sayles are soft and appealing, emphasizing the emotional undercurrent of each scene. All in all, a solidly engaging story, recommended to children from immigrant and bilingual homes, or to young readers interested in the immigrant experience. ( )