The TTLG 2011 Picture Book Celebration - Book Eighty-Seven

When I was in elementary school, I had to take a lunch with me. Unlike my daughter's school, my school did not provide meals for the students. Lunchtimes were therefore very interesting because you got to see what the other children had in their lunch boxes. My mother was, and still is, a very creative cook, so I often went to school with things like chicken stew, spaghetti and meatballs, and beans and rice. The children at my table thought this was very odd until a wonderful boy who grew up in Taiwan joined us. He ate his lunch with chopsticks!

Carla’s Sandwich
Debbie Herman

Illustrated by Sheila Bailey

Picture Book

Ages 5 to 7

Flashlight Press, 2004, 0-972-92252-0

   Carla is bringing some very strange things to school for her lunches. In fact she is bringing such peculiar sandwiches to school that no one wants to sit with her anymore, and they make fun of her too. As far as Carla is concerned though, her sandwiches are “creative,” “unique,” and “different,” and not “gross,” “disgusting,” or “sick.”

   When the children in Carla’s class go for a picnic, Carla is laughed at again for having a very “different” sandwich. As the children are eating their lunch sitting on the grass under the blue sky, Buster discovers that he forgot to bring his lunch. Feeling famished, Buster accepts Carla’s offer to share some of her peculiar sandwich – and he gets a real shock.

   By telling a story that every child can relate to, the author shows her readers that being different is not a bad thing. On the contrary, it is something to be acknowledged and enjoyed.