Today in my lunchbox
I happened to find …
A young boy opens his lunchbox to find an apple. He doesn’t like apples, but that’s just the beginning. Over the next days he finds increasingly unlikely things in his lunchbox, each of which he likes even less than the previous offering. His apprehension in opening the lunchbox grows. Font size is large and the text simple. Illustration backgrounds are in pastel colours with the main character, the lunchbox and the ‘contents’ of the lunchbox in more intense colours. Endpapers feature a range of lunchbox possibilities, only some of which are included in the story.
What’s in My Lunchbox is a timely story for new school children and younger children experiencing lunchbox offerings for the first time. The rhythm and repetition of the text will soon have young children ‘reading’ along. Illustrations provide offer extras for young readers to identify. Young readers will also be able to empathise with the growing apprehension illustrated. Plenty of opportunities to generate discussion about lunchbox choices. Love the grinning lunchbox! Recommended for pre- and early-schoolers.
What’s in My LunchboxPeter Carnavas ill Kat Chadwick New Frontier Publishing 2015 ISBN: 9781925059038
review by Claire Saxby, Children’s author and bookseller