How Did That Get in My Lunchbox? The Story of Food by Chris Butterworth, illustrated by Lucia Gaggiotti
I know, I know. The food books must come to an end.
But instead, I’ll just force my children to read age-appropriate books to prepare them for the eventual mandatory reading of the food books I can’t put down (I resisted the urge to make a bad pun there with “devouring” or something. You are so welcome). (Also, I would never force my child to read a book. I make no similar promises about how many dinner times they’ll have to suffer through with me talking on and on about food).
how did that get in my lunchbox? by chris butterworth
How Did That Get in My Lunchbox? starts out with a lunchbox filled with a cheese sandwich, vegetables, clementines, apple juice box, and a chocolate chip cookie.
Each page of How Did That Get in My Lunchbox then describes how an element of your lunch is produced. Bread starts with wheat being planted, cut, milled, then baked into bread and shipped to the store. Chocolate chips take a long road to be transformed from a bean. (You will notice it’s a meat-free lunch – what poor children’s author wants to talk about how animals are slaughtered for your ham sandwich?)
Each process hits a nice balance between detailed enough without being overwhelming. And the illustrations are bright and whimsical (even the cows look super happy to be hooked up to milking machines).
How Did That Get in My Lunchbox was just a fun book to look through and one I think kids will enjoy reading (if you don’t mind that you’ll probably spend the next week back-tracing every food item that appears on your table).
Sounds cute. So glad you said you wouldn't force your child to read a book. It seldom works. However, discussing it at the dinner table does. 😉