After reading Sunny & The Chocolate Dog Go to the Beach, my 10 year old son immediately wanted to go visit the www.sunnyand thechocolatedag.com web site to learn more about the dogs. Having a dog of his own, the book was an instant success.

I'm not sure which was best....Reading the book WITH my six year old niece, or merely watching her expressive face as she experienced Sunny and Cloudy come to life. The books engage and entice a young reader to laugh, learn, and live. Sunny and the Chocolate Dog series conveys values and virtues in an enjoyable manner. "What is a buddy system..." she asked.....I myself had forgotten all about the buddy system. "Was I scared of the water the first time I went to the beach....". A great team approach to reading. Initially she needed help with some of the larger words, she now prides herself in the ability to annunciate and read them with ease. She has replaced the books on her bed side table with the Sunny and the Chocolate Dog series.

I ordered the first book - Sunny and the Chocolate Dog: Sunny Meets her Baby Sister - for my four year old daughter and she loved it so we decided to order this title as well. My daughter loves this one too! The characters are great and the story has a great message for children about overcoming their fear (my daughter is just learning to swim and she really related.) I highly recommend this book.

This guide is very helpful for students in my basic writing class in community college, many of whom have never read a novel.

Like Water for Chocolate is a story about recipes, advice, home remedies and romance. The novel is the story of Tita, the youngest of three doughters born to Mama Elena, the tyrannical owner of De La Garza Ranch.Tita is the victim of tradition. As the youngest doughter in a traditional Mexican family she is obliged to remain unmarried and care for her mother.experiencing pain and frustration as she watches Pedro, her true love, marry her older sister Rosaura. Tita faces the added burden of having to bake the wedding cake.Because of her skill as a cook and knowledge of its magic. She puts emøtion in the cake and makes all the wedding guests ill.The story ends in a magical, unusual way. It is enjoyable reading.

Charting New Waters is a funny and gutsy collection of poetry, cartoons, autobiographical essay and political satire. Not always pretty, Chocolate Waters' work is hard-hitting and often side-splitting in it's raw emotion, humor and truthfulness. She is free with her hurt, her lust, her rage, her laughter. For all of you who lived through the birth of radical lesbianism, she guides a nostalgic ride that time only enhances. For younger readers, Waters offers a glimpse of the reality of life for political lesbians in the seventies.

If you're looking for Moon, Spoon and June poetry, try another author. Waters is shockingly real in her open sexuality and alternative cultural lifestyle. If you're looking for wild and wonderful experience through the eyes of someone with the been-there Blues, try tasting Chocolate.

April 18, 2003

"Take Me Like a Photograph," originally published more than 25 years ago by a young poet, Chocolate Waters, then less than 30 years of age, is a remarkable work, and I love it. It is a book of poetry and personality.

Back then, in 1977, "Take Me Like a Photograph" was an exploration of a young poet's developing womanhood, of her blossoming lesbian discovery of self. Back then, it was also a history-making achievement'probably worth reading for that alone. But this is also a collection of poems. And these twenty-five year old poems are no less compelling today than they were when they were brand new, twenty-five years ago.

The title poem is an excellent example of the combination of poetry and personality that makes this work so appealing:

You have loved me for myself,
not a picture of me
someone else has taken

In these lines is a sophisticated awareness, a full working out of the sensibility of poet and personality, of art and the individual made one. The movement from 'for myself' to 'not a picture off me' is thrust gently forward into a satisfying and surprising place, as the next line continues, 'someone else has taken.' Just read it over:

You have loved me for myself,
not a picture of me
someone else has taken

And, of course, the line break, 'me / someone' sounds the delicate ear of a finely tuned poetic instrument and propels the senses into that refined place where poetry and personality are one.

I should have mentioned at the beginning that I had been told that "Take Me Like a Photograph" is a classic work of the Women's Movement. This description made me nervous. I was expecting propaganda and self-righteousness. I found, instead, art and humanity. I found a young woman, a young poet, a beautiful young heart laboring to uncover the art in her life and the life in her art. And Chocolate Waters, amazing soul that she is, is not reluctant to tell us what she finds:

I sprang / half-grown / from the / touch /
of your / first woman's /hands

and this:

I send my love beneath the ground /
beneath the longing earth /
my longing for this loving not to end

and this:

you touch me / and I / fall down.

and this:

Sweet Chocolate you are / mine and I am everything you want /
and would not ask from anyone

"Take Me Like a Photograph" is surrender and triumph. It is the vulnerability of youth. And the indestructibility of youth.

I urge you to take this book with you a few weeks wherever you go; let it take you places you have never been, lovely and heroic.

This book is as topical today as it was when it was first published.. Bravo Ms. Waters! A must read for women old and young, those who lived through the second wave of feminism, and the young women today who need to know what that struggle was all about. Chocolate Waters has the ability to write in a way that her works will never be "out of style".

Like water for hot chocolate is a clever and compelling novel, which is enticing and hard to put down. Laura Esquivel has struck success with her first novel as it involves a diversity of emotions. Forbidden love, mystical food and family traditions are all mixed together with a hint of magical realism and a dash of descriptive metaphors which creates a classic tale of romance ensuring a best seller. In a small town in Mexico near the Rio Grande lives the De La Garza family. Tita, the youngest daughter of the family if forbidden to marry her one true love. All due to a Mexican family tradition which condomnes Tita to taking care of the spiteful Mama Elena until the day she dies. Instead of Pedro marrying Tita, Mama Elena offers him one of her other daughters called Rosaura. Pedro painfully accepts the offer in the hope that he can become closer to Tita. This starts many bizzare and wonderful events which occur throughout the book, alluring you to read ahead. Each character has their own complex and diverse personality. Mama Elena repulsed me with her selfish way of thinking while I admired Tita for being strong. The storyline is easy to follow and has a delightful hint of comedy attached to it. The language is very descriptive enabling you to visualise the story, setting and feelings. Definitely worth reading, good for a laugh and a cry while having a pull on your heart strings. A perfect recipe for true romantics.

I loved this book so much that I read it twice in English and once in Spanish. It's equally beautiful and poetic in both languages. Like Water for Chocolate is the story of a woman named Tita who is denied the pleasure of marrying the man she loves because of a family tradition that says the youngest daughter must dedicate her life to caring for her mother. Tita's mother is so cruel that she not only forbids Tita from marrying her lover, but also convinces him to marry Tita's older sister. He agrees because he knows it is the only way he can be close to Tita. Throughout the book, Tita pours her various emotions into her cooking, which has powerful and mysterious effects on those who eat it. Rather than making the story seem unreal, these magical events make the emotions of the novel more powerful and real to the reader. This novel is far more than a love story. It is a picture of an entire Mexican family, and how each individual is affected by Mama Elena's cruelty and the affair between Tita and Pedro. In the end, even Mama Elena becomes human when the reason for her cruelty is revealed.

"Like Water for Chocolate" combines the techniques of magical realism with sensual romance and magnificent cooking to create a truly unique novel. We are taken through the life of Tita De La Garza, the passionate woman stuck between a forbidden love and the wrath of her traditional mother. We follow her through her struggle to find love and individuality while balancing her extraordinary gift to enchant the kitchen. Through the monthly installments in the novel you will get a small taste of what life was like in the twentieth century in Mexico yet also see the world through the intense emotion that guides you through the pages. The vivid symbols of heat and fire permeate the novel and arouse strong emotions of lust and love. If the intensity of the novel does not keep the pages turning then the recipes that are uniquely woven into the story surely will. I recommend this novel to anybody who is interested in a quick read that keeps you coming back every time you put the book down.

This is such a FUN book. It is a story about love, deception, family, tradition and... COOKING!

I fell in love with the characters, and was very happy to see leading ladies everywhere!

It was also very nice to be able to have a quick look at old fashioned recipes, and understand the process of creating them.

Finally, this book has enough drama, love and tragedy for a movie... and Im very happy it became one, which, by the way is also very good, and captures the real essence of the book.

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Este es un libro muy divertido. Es una historia sobre el amor, la decepcion, la familia, las tradiciones y sobretodo... la cocina!

Me enamore de los personajes y me dio mucho gusto ver a mujeres protagonistas.

Ademas, fue muy interesante el leer sobre recetas antiguas y entender el proceso de creacion de diferentes alimentos.

Finalmente este es un libro con drama, amor y tragedia dignos de una pelicula...y me da mucho gusto que se haya hecho una tan buena, que en verdad capta la esencia del libro.

Like Water For Chocolate is a wonderful and enchanting novel overflowing with intense passion and desire. It is a beautifully written Mexican story about a girl named Tita who is denied her first true love. It tells of the suffering, struggle, and power of women living in a deeply-rooted heritage full of war and countless traditions. Uniquely written, the novel is a story told in twelve monthly installments interwoven with recipes that enable Tita's freedom and individuality to shine through her deprived childhood. Her talent and love for cooking are easily understood as she demonstrates the power of food on the soul. This novel focuses on Tita's quest for love and happiness, which, in return, bring out the reader's most intimate emotions. It is a fun book persuading the reader that perhaps magic and reality are one in the same. It is a romantic fairy-tale as well as one of the best page-turners I have ever read.

Como Agua Para Chocolate fue el primer libro que lei en espanol. Me gusto la historia, especialmente los presonajes. La autora desarrolla muy profundamente los sentimentos, suenos y deseos de los protagonistas. No podia esperar para ver que iba a pasar en el proximo capitulo. Fue fascinante leer sobre esa epoca y el effecto que tenia en sus vidas. La manera en que la autora ha mezclado la preparacion de la comida con los eventos importantes en las vidas de los personajes me parecio muy especial. Tambien el libro es bueno para los estudiantes de espanol porque es facil para leer y no necesitan traducir cada palabra para entender la idea general. El libro hizo su magia en mi espanol tambien, porque despues de leerlo, pude hablar mucho mejor!!

this book is the best book of limp bizkit that you can find.