Book Review: Sandwich Swap

The Sandwich Swap. By Her Majesty Queen Rania Al Abdullah with Kelly Dipucchio. Illus. by Tricia Tusa. 2010. 32 pg. Disney/Hyperion., $16.99 (9781423124849)
 

Format: Hardcover
Age Group: PreS-Gr.2
Genre:Fiction 

Awards: NYSRA Charlotte Award Nominee

Subjects/Themes: Friendship, Multicultural

ELS promoted: Print motivation, print awareness, vocabulary
 

Annotation: 
Best friends Lily and Salma disagree about their preferred foods, but later trade foods and change their minds.
 

Reactions/Observations:

Based on the author’s nursery school experiences, Salma and Lily are best friends (from different cultural backgrounds) until the day their sandwiches come between them. Lily brings a peanut butter jelly sandwich while Salma brings a hummus sandwich every day. Each one pities the other’s “yucky” and “gross” sandwich, but neither understands that their sandwiches symbolize the love their parents both put into making their lunches. They are offended. After their yelling match starts a huge food fight, Salma and Lily are ashamed that they let their differences come between them.  Both decide that they need to be open to what seems foreign or strange and change. First, they offer to try each other’s sandwiches. They trade sandwiches only to find out that they were both wrong! The sandwiches were not gross or yucky.  They were delicious! With the help of their principal, Salma and Lily share their newfound lesson with a multicultural feast of food alongside their classmates.  

The author tells the story of two girls who discover each others' cultural difference through food. Food is a universal unifier.  In this story, it separates them but eventually brings them together. Despite the difference in culture, both girls have a lot in common and spend a lot of time together.  The sandwich symbolizes the difference. Being able to look past the differences to their similarities allows them to stay friends. Multiculturalism is the same. It’s simply being able to respect other cultures and acknowledge the wonderful things in the differences in culture. I enjoyed the sweet story about their friendship and appreciated the common themes of school drama with friends on the playground (or in this case, the cafeteria).  I also enjoyed the warm illustrations depicting their friendship. The illustrations are light and playful, easily inspiring a smile upon the readers’ faces once all the conflicts are resolved.