Stay for Dinner

From the storytellers behind the award-winning The Boy Who Tried to Shrink His Name comes a powerful picture book about culture and connection through food, perfect for fans of Soul Food Sunday

This gentle picture book speaks to the anxieties many children have about not fitting in with their peers, and celebrates the ways food can connect us to our cultures and to each other.

Reshma loves dinnertime with her family. Their table is full of squishy splashy curies, crispy crunchy papadums, and heaping piles of rice. Her family scoops and mixes their delicious dinner with their fingers and Ammama always finishes the meal with a complementary burp.

When Reshma is invited to for dinner at her friends’ houses, she sees that not everyone eats like her family. At Phoebe’s house, dumplings are eaten with chopsticks; and at Leo’s house, pasta is twirled on forks. Mama wants to invite her friends to dinner, too, but Reshma is nervous.

Will her friends laugh at the way her family eats?

Sandhya Parappukkaran is the author of books like The Boy Who Tried to Shrink His Name and Amma’s Sari. She left her job as a food technologist so she could put her feet up and read. Then she rediscovered her passion for children’s books. Her stories are inspired by her multicultural experience and include scrumptious food from her South Indian heritage. She resides in Brisbane with her family. Michelle Pereira, who is the illustrator of The Boy Who Tried to Shrink His Name and Amma’s Sari, spent her childhood in Nairobi, Kenya, and now lives in Melbourne, Australia. She graduated from Monash University with a bachelor’s degree in communication design. She has worked with a range of clients such as Penguin UK, Netflix, the New York Times, and Marie Claire.