Bold colors and flavors serve as a reminder to embrace your heritage and all its culinary glory.
A racially diverse group of kids must navigate a tumultuous school lunch.
Students sit down at tables amid piles of colorful lunchboxes. Despite the various lunch sack designs, only sandwiches are packed with the exception of one student. As Preeti excitedly digs into their favorite foods of dhokla cake topped with vagar, with mango pickles on the side, a classmate replies that their food “smells stinky!” Even though Preeti pushes back, they later ask their mother for a sandwich for lunch tomorrow. A similar pattern is observed over several days when Mina is interrupted as she eats her gimbap or when Niki unpacks her bagel with lox, cream cheese, capers, and tomato. Ray also receives backlash when he eats his tortilla filled with cut-up hot dog, a scrambled egg, and melted cheese packed by his abuela. Even though each child defends their food choices, they all succumb to peer pressure and eat sandwiches instead. Li fills each page with bold color combinations and detailed portraits and backdrops that make each spotlighted lunch delectable. The concise narration reveals that the children all eventually tire of their daily sandwiches and decide to reclaim their favorite foods with pride. An afterword reveals that the four students are based on the childhood experiences of professional chefs. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Bold colors and flavors serve as a reminder to embrace your heritage and all its culinary glory. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: Aug. 30, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-593-38445-9
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Rise x Penguin Workshop
Review Posted Online: May 10, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A cozy read to share, especially with beloved older relatives.
A mutual love of pie seals an affectionate relationship.
Noor and Granddad are separated by an ocean (though their locations are unspecified). Still, they share a common passion—pie—which they eat together every summer, when Noor and Mom travel by plane to visit Granddad and Nana. Then Noor and her grandfather bake up a storm. The most special—albeit bittersweet—one is the “time-to-say-goodbye pie,” the signal that it’s time for Noor and Mom to leave. But Noor and Granddad still meet virtually for their Friday “pie reports,” where they discuss what’s going on in their lives. Just before Noor leaves this summer, she learns that Granddad’s health is declining; his “arm [has] been shaking more than usual.” Granddad calls these incidents “blue days.” As Granddad’s symptoms increase, he skips their pie reports, so Noor writes her reports and reads them aloud at their next visit. When necessary, Granddad rests; sometimes, he’s better. At story’s end, Noor gives Granddad a hopeful card that reads “For when you need to find your way out of the blue” and tells him he’s stronger than he knows. This upbeat, warmhearted tale bubbles with sweetness; children will appreciate the protagonists’ intergenerational bond as well as the food theme. The delightful illustrations were created with pencil and graphite sticks on paper, then digitally colored; kids will savor those pastries. Noor and Mom have light-brown skin. Granddad is lighter-skinned, and Nana is brown-skinned.
A cozy read to share, especially with beloved older relatives. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: May 14, 2024
ISBN: 9781459838079
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Orca
Review Posted Online: Feb. 17, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
A full-hearted valentine.
A soaring panegyric to elementary school as a communal place to learn and grow.
“This is a kid,” Schu begins. “This is a kid in a class. This is a class in a hall….” If that class—possibly second graders, though they could be a year to either side of that—numbers only about a dozen in Jamison’s bright paintings, it makes up for that in diversity, with shiny faces of variously brown or olive complexion well outnumbering paler ones; one child using a wheelchair; and at least two who appear to be Asian. (The adult staff is likewise racially diverse.) The children are individualized in the art, but the author’s narrative is addressed more to an older set of readers as it runs almost entirely to collective nouns and abstract concepts: “We share. We help. / This is a community, growing.” Younger audiences will zero in on the pictures, which depict easily recognizable scenes of both individual and collective learning and play, with adults and classmates always on hand to help out or join in. Signs of conflict are unrealistically absent, but an occasional downcast look does add a bit of nuance to the general air of eager positivity on display. A sad face at an apartment window with a comment that “[s]ometimes something happens, and we can’t all be together” can be interpreted as an oblique reference to pandemic closings, but the central message here is that school is a physical space, not a virtual one, where learning and community happen. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A full-hearted valentine. (Picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: March 29, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-5362-0458-2
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: March 29, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2022
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