Michelle Blanchard Ardillo

I love to travel and I love to eat, so this new title jumped out for me in the listings of new books on NetGalley! Thank you NetGalley, Ruby Tuesday Books, and Ellen Lawrence for the opportunity to read this new book!

First of all, the photography in this book is great. The scenes are bright and colorful, and they capture the everyday life of children all over the world doing what kids love to do, eat!

As a middle school teacher for almost 20 years, I knew I could start any discussion about the literature we were reading in class by talking about food, whether it was food the characters were eating, or just the food from the country (or state) where the story took place. Everyone loves to talk about food!

Just published on August 1, 2025, this 24-page children’s book takes the reader around the world, from the United States to Germany to Namibia to Rwanda to Japan to Tibet to the UK to Brazil. Also covered in the storyline are important celebrations, both secular and religious, such as Ramadan and Diwali.

I loved seeing the kids in this book enjoying the foods of their culture. I loved the diversity represented throughout the book. I also loved that it wasn’t all rainbows and unicorns, showing scenes of the street children of Brazil and families searching for food in garbage heaps. It’s important to recognize that these challenges are part of our world, even if difficult to explain to young readers. It’s not enough to threaten picky eaters with the old saying of “there are starving children somewhere who would love to have the food you won’t eat.”

While I won’t be rushing out to buy a durian (I am told they have a very unpleasant smell and are even outlawed from carrying them on public transportation in some parts of the world), I loved seeing the foods from the different countries represented in Lawrence’s charming book.