This is the Way We Eat Our Lunch: A Book about Children Around the World

Introducing young readers to the typical dishes that children around the world eat every day, a fact-filled culinary tour covers everything from Coney Island hot dogs to Japanese tempura.

Kindergarten-Grade 2?As they did in This Is the Way We Go to School (Scholastic, 1990), Baer and Bjorkman have again teamed up to broaden the horizons of youngsters, this time by introducing them to different cuisines from around the world. They follow the format of the earlier title, presenting two rhyming lines per location, beginning with various U.S. sites and then extending outward to Canada, South America, and so on. Additional features include a world map highlighting locations mentioned, three recipes, and a listing of dishes and types of cookery at the book's end. While the watercolor and pen cartoons are fine for conveying local flavor, they sometimes fall short of adequate depictions of some dishes, especially the gumbo, couscous, and Chinese dumplings. Sometimes the food is impossible to detect?the curry, pita bread, and Ghanan beans and rice are completely hidden within their pictures. Thus This Is the Way We Eat Our Lunch will be best presented if followed by further research or taste testing.?Claudia Cooper, Ft. Stockton Independent School District, TX
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Ages 2^-8. Baer's sprightly rhyme canters on a lunchtime tour around the world through nine states, two Canadian provinces, and 11 countries. An appended world map charts the journey from clam chowder in Massachusetts and hot dogs at Coney Island through soufflein Quebec, plantains in Puerto Rico, couscous in North Africa, curry in India, and tempura in Japan. Food facts and recipes for fruit salad, hummus, and wild rice soup round out the book. Complemented by Bjx9a rkman's delicate, airy pen drawings washed in a wide palette of watercolor tones, the lively rhyme will appeal to a wide range of children, from toddlers who will relish the pictures to young students just beginning to savor the wider world. Linda Ward-Callaghan