The Sandwich Swap by Queen Raina of Jordan and Kelly DiPucchio, illustrated by Tricia Tusa
Lily and Salma are best friends. They do a lot of things together very happily. But one thing they did’t agree on was the sandwiches they had for lunch. Lily brought peanut butter and jelly on white bread every day. Salma brought hummus on pita bread every day. Each girl thought that the other girl must be suffering eating that icky looking sandwich every day. One day, Lily blurted out what she thought of Salma’s sandwich and then, feeling very angry, Salma told Lily that her sandwich looked gross and smelled bad. The two girls didn’t play together that day. Their argument started a larger one in their school and then a food fight! The next day, they sat together and each offered the other a taste of their sandwich which once again led to the whole school getting involved.
The writing in the book has a delightful rhythm to it, using nicely subtle repetition to underline how similar the girls are even in their differences. The glimpses of their home life as each girl thinks about how their sandwich is made by loving hands adds a lot to the story as well. Tusa’s illustrations are done in her signature style with plenty of emotion. They also have a lovely interplay of white space and color washes that make them eye catching and work well when placed with little text or a page filled with text.
Highly recommended, this book is ideal to start a discussion of differences in a classroom, especially cultural ones. I love that the book uses food to bring children together, because it can be such an ambassador for different cultures and even different families in the same culture. Appropriate for ages 4-6.
Reviewed from library copy.
Check out the book trailer below:
Also reviewed by:
Waking Brain Cells 