Jared White's Reviews > Home in a Lunchbox

Adorable illustrations and sparse text combine to tell the at first hard and sad story of going to a new school where you know no one and do not speak the language, but then, when someone offers friendship, what a hopeful and rich experience that can be (for both parties)! The illustrations and occasional squiggly/indiscernible speech bubbles do a great job of conveying the confusion and frustration that Jun, our lead, first feels when starting at their new school. Also, the pictures, through their fireworks, cloud of hearts, etc. do a wonderful job of conveying the warmth and sense of home that Jun's delightful homemade school lunches brings to them.

I don't think I would use this in storytime because of some of the small details contained in a few of the illustrations and also quite a few pages don't have any text, but I think it would be a great book to read one-on-one, to a very small group, or to just have available for kids (upper elementary) to read on their own.