Home in a Lunchbox
Review posted July 27, 2024.
Penguin Workshop, 2024. 40 pages.
Review written July 19, 2024, from a library book.
Starred Review
The more I look at this beautiful picture book, the more charmed I am.
It's a story of a young girl moving with her family from Hong Kong to America, and it's told mostly in pictures, with color showing emotion.
On the endpapers, we see a moving truck leaving behind the lights of Hong Kong and moving to a suburban street in America. On the title page, the sweet little girl's mother gives her a loving good-by kiss, while good food is giving off smells on the table beside them. The girl is wearing a backpack and holding a lunchbox.
Right away at the bus stop, a friendly girl says Hello to our hero. She answers "Hel...lo!" When the girl asks, "What's your name," she consults writing on her hand, which gives her translations for the words Hello, Thank you, and I don't know. So she answers, "Th...ank you..."
Riding the bus and getting school, the pictures show us how alone the little girl feels. She's in color, but all around her the kids are drawn in gray. She's given a worksheet and fills in "I don't know" in all the blanks.
But when lunchtime comes and she opens her lunchbox, all is color and sparkles. There's a full spread where we can see that her food gives her memories of happy times with family and friends back home.
As the week goes on, more mortifying times happen - especially when she asks for a "Toilet." But in panels as days go by, she still gets color and sparkles and happiness when she opens her lunchbox.
And finally, it's the lunchbox that helps her make friends. The original girl from the bus stop has been watching her. An exchange of food happens, they see her nametag on her lunch (Jun) and a new small group of friends comes together -- now all full of color and happiness.
There's a spread at the back explaining the food in Jun's lunchbox, and the words she's written on her hand, in English and Cantonese. It also explains that most people in Hong Kong learn the British way of asking for a restroom - asking for a "toilet."
The back flap tells us the author based the book on her own experiences moving to the United States from Hong Kong when she was 10 years old. She's communicated the whole thing so beautifully, in a picture book that transcends language.