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Home in a Lunchbox
Cherry Mo's stunning debut is about a young girl who immigrates to America and finds home in an unexpected place.
When Jun moves from Hong Kong to America, the only words she knows are hello, thank you , I don’t know , and toilet . Her new school feels foreign and terrifying.
But when she opens her lunchbox to find her favorite meals—like bao, dumplings, and bok choy—she realizes home isn’t so far away after all.
Through lush art and spare dialogue, Cherry Mo’s breathtakingly beautiful debut picture book reminds readers that friendship and belonging can be found in every bite.
When Jun moves from Hong Kong to America, the only words she knows are hello, thank you , I don’t know , and toilet . Her new school feels foreign and terrifying.
But when she opens her lunchbox to find her favorite meals—like bao, dumplings, and bok choy—she realizes home isn’t so far away after all.
Through lush art and spare dialogue, Cherry Mo’s breathtakingly beautiful debut picture book reminds readers that friendship and belonging can be found in every bite.
40 pages, Hardcover
First published June 11, 2024
7 people are currently reading
633 people want to read
About the author
Cherry Mo
1 book34 followersCherry Mo grew up in Hong Kong and moved to the United States at the age of ten. HOME IN A LUNCHBOX is her debut picture book and was inspired by her first days of school in America. Cherry writes and illustrates stories that she hopes bring young readers a sense of comfort and belonging.
Praises for HOME IN A LUNCHBOX:
Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection
July/August 2024 Kids' Indie Next List Pick
"In an exceptional debut, Mo deploys digital illustrations that expertly use selective coloring to depict an experience of finding common ground." — Starred review from Publisher's Weekly
"Inspired by Mo's move from Hong Kong to the United States at the age of 10, this remarkable story about finding comfort in a new home by bringing along familiar traditions is a must-purchase for picture book collections and will resonate with any child who has struggled to fit in." — Starred review from School Library Journal
"Round-faced, endearing Jun is utterly expressive; her sadness upon returning home each day is especially palpable... A touching immigrant story that hits the heart — and stomach." — Kirkus Reviews
"With its spare text (most of which is speech-bubble dialogue), the story is primarily conveyed through Mo’s sensitively drawn, sometimes paneled illustrations, which vividly depict Jun’s emotional state. This debut picture book captures the immigrant experience, highlighting the impact of small gestures of kindness and celebrating the unifying power of food across cultures and languages." — The Horn Book
"This story is brimming with rich and warm illustrations that invite you to discover the unifying power of food: how the simple act of sharing a meal with others can create and invoke belonging and community." — Courtney Roach, The Novel Neighbor, Webster Groves, MO
"This lushly illustrated book takes readers on a journey of memory and hope, highlighting the power of food to build connections across language, space, and time." — Joanna Ho, New York Times bestselling author of Eyes that Kiss in the Corners
"This story reminds us all how anyone can feel lonely, but small gestures can travel for miles. A beautiful book." — Erin E. Stead, illustrator of the Caldecott Medal-winning book A Sick Day for Amos McGee
Praises for HOME IN A LUNCHBOX:
Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection
July/August 2024 Kids' Indie Next List Pick
"In an exceptional debut, Mo deploys digital illustrations that expertly use selective coloring to depict an experience of finding common ground." — Starred review from Publisher's Weekly
"Inspired by Mo's move from Hong Kong to the United States at the age of 10, this remarkable story about finding comfort in a new home by bringing along familiar traditions is a must-purchase for picture book collections and will resonate with any child who has struggled to fit in." — Starred review from School Library Journal
"Round-faced, endearing Jun is utterly expressive; her sadness upon returning home each day is especially palpable... A touching immigrant story that hits the heart — and stomach." — Kirkus Reviews
"With its spare text (most of which is speech-bubble dialogue), the story is primarily conveyed through Mo’s sensitively drawn, sometimes paneled illustrations, which vividly depict Jun’s emotional state. This debut picture book captures the immigrant experience, highlighting the impact of small gestures of kindness and celebrating the unifying power of food across cultures and languages." — The Horn Book
"This story is brimming with rich and warm illustrations that invite you to discover the unifying power of food: how the simple act of sharing a meal with others can create and invoke belonging and community." — Courtney Roach, The Novel Neighbor, Webster Groves, MO
"This lushly illustrated book takes readers on a journey of memory and hope, highlighting the power of food to build connections across language, space, and time." — Joanna Ho, New York Times bestselling author of Eyes that Kiss in the Corners
"This story reminds us all how anyone can feel lonely, but small gestures can travel for miles. A beautiful book." — Erin E. Stead, illustrator of the Caldecott Medal-winning book A Sick Day for Amos McGee
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 297 reviews
August 19, 2024
The best picture book that I’ve read ALL year long. The artwork is absolutely beautiful! If this doesn’t get a Caldecott in January of 2025 I will be pissed.
October 16, 2024
This is a debut. I can barely believe this is a debut because WOW.
Home in a Lunchbox uses limited words to tell the story of a young girl, Jun, who has moved to the USA from Hong Kong, doesn't speak more than a few words of English, and struggles to get on at school. Each day she really just gets by without much pleasure, oftentimes with much awkwardness, except for the homemade lunches her mom sends her each day, which brighten things considerably for her. Mo illustrates how the food makes Jun feel and how it makes her think of family and friends and home in a way that is so hard to capture but so incredibly easy to relate to. Ultimately young Jun is able to make friends when her classmates bond with her by sharing different foods with each other and creating new food memories. The story is touching, the emotions are relatable, and the art is absolutely gorgeous. The food illustrations are especially delicious looking, but every single page is stunning.
I highly recommend this one. I can't wait to see what else Mo does, because of this is where she's started, I can only imagine where that's going to take her.
Home in a Lunchbox uses limited words to tell the story of a young girl, Jun, who has moved to the USA from Hong Kong, doesn't speak more than a few words of English, and struggles to get on at school. Each day she really just gets by without much pleasure, oftentimes with much awkwardness, except for the homemade lunches her mom sends her each day, which brighten things considerably for her. Mo illustrates how the food makes Jun feel and how it makes her think of family and friends and home in a way that is so hard to capture but so incredibly easy to relate to. Ultimately young Jun is able to make friends when her classmates bond with her by sharing different foods with each other and creating new food memories. The story is touching, the emotions are relatable, and the art is absolutely gorgeous. The food illustrations are especially delicious looking, but every single page is stunning.
I highly recommend this one. I can't wait to see what else Mo does, because of this is where she's started, I can only imagine where that's going to take her.
July 16, 2025
Cherry Mo’s nearly wordless 2025 Caldecott honour winning picture book Home in a Lunchbox uses delightful and expressively colourful digital illustrations to sweetly, realistically (and hugely relatable to immigrants both young and old) tell a personal story about a young girl (Jun) who after moving with her family to the USA from Hong Kong (and feeling both out of place and also knowing only very few words of English) finds solace and the comforts of the home she has left through the foods her mother packs in her daughter's daily school lunchbox. And after Jun and her family arrive in the United States, most of Mo's story for Home in a Lunchbox occurs at the school now Jun attends, but that some of the illustrations in Home in a Lunhbox also depict and describe Jun's mother kissing her daughter on the cheek when Jun leaves for school, hugging her supportively when Jun returns from school feeling discouraged, overwhelmed, and that when Jun opens up her lunchbox filled with familiar Chinese food treats such as braised tofu, vegetable chow main, rice, dumplings etc., Cherry Mo shows wisps of vapour, appreciation, visions of home and of comfort drifting above the meal Mom has made for her daughter, with Jun smiling with her eyes closed, clutching her lunchbox with both hands and feeling much comfort and also less homesickness because of her lunchbox.
And although I am usually not all that much a fan of wordless or of nearly wordless picture books (since I tend to prefer and often even need a sufficiently descriptive written text for true reading pleasure, and yes, even with and from picture books), Mo with Home in a Lunchbox indeed does an absolutely and totally marvellous and also a wonderfully realistic job showing with both her gorgeous artwork and equally so with very few but essential words Jun’s attempts at speaking to classmates, how she thinks that everyone at school is speaking gibberish (and oh boy, does this ever sound relatable and familiar, as when I moved to Canada from Germany when I was ten, I felt and thought pretty well exactly the same), how the list of English words and phrases Jun has memorised does not get her all that far and actually tends to cause frustration as well as embarrassment (such as for example Jun using UK word toilet instead of washroom and which I also did in fact when newly arrived in Canada from Germany and with everyone giggling) and thus of course also experiencing more and more homesickness, that her classmates are obviously having fun at school whilst Jun is mostly majorly struggling and is really only happy at lunchtime, when in Home in a Lunchbox she gets to eat her comforts of home food and thinks fondly about Hong Kong (with Cherry Mo having colourful fireworks appearing and Jun looking overjoyed sharing food with friends and family in her old life but bien sûr and a bit sadly only in her memories, only in her dreams).
However and happily, after a few days, three classmates join Jun's table at lunchtime, she shares her food and they share theirs (including pizza and hamburgers), with the final spread of Home in a Lunchbox showing Jun walking home with her new friends and her mother preparing Asian food and tea for them all to enjoy, a sweetly positive and glowingly optimistic ending for Home in a Lunchbox and with both my inner child and also adult I enjoying not only Mo's nearly wordless and oh so relatable story but also appreciating the informative supplemental details being provided. But just to say in conclusion that there in my humble opinion should also be some recipes provided in Home in a Lunchbox, and I do have to admit that while for me what Cherry Mo has provided and shown in Home in a Lunchbox is both delightfully wonderful and also as already mentioned above majorly relatable, in particular my inner and recently arrived in Canada from Germany child is actually somewhat envious regarding the positive ending for Home in a Lunchbox (since this certainly did not happen for me at school and that my classmates tended to always make fun of my German lunches and that even the teachers were annoyed and critical that I brought deli meats, pickles, spätzle and sauerkraut in my lunchboxes).
And although I am usually not all that much a fan of wordless or of nearly wordless picture books (since I tend to prefer and often even need a sufficiently descriptive written text for true reading pleasure, and yes, even with and from picture books), Mo with Home in a Lunchbox indeed does an absolutely and totally marvellous and also a wonderfully realistic job showing with both her gorgeous artwork and equally so with very few but essential words Jun’s attempts at speaking to classmates, how she thinks that everyone at school is speaking gibberish (and oh boy, does this ever sound relatable and familiar, as when I moved to Canada from Germany when I was ten, I felt and thought pretty well exactly the same), how the list of English words and phrases Jun has memorised does not get her all that far and actually tends to cause frustration as well as embarrassment (such as for example Jun using UK word toilet instead of washroom and which I also did in fact when newly arrived in Canada from Germany and with everyone giggling) and thus of course also experiencing more and more homesickness, that her classmates are obviously having fun at school whilst Jun is mostly majorly struggling and is really only happy at lunchtime, when in Home in a Lunchbox she gets to eat her comforts of home food and thinks fondly about Hong Kong (with Cherry Mo having colourful fireworks appearing and Jun looking overjoyed sharing food with friends and family in her old life but bien sûr and a bit sadly only in her memories, only in her dreams).
However and happily, after a few days, three classmates join Jun's table at lunchtime, she shares her food and they share theirs (including pizza and hamburgers), with the final spread of Home in a Lunchbox showing Jun walking home with her new friends and her mother preparing Asian food and tea for them all to enjoy, a sweetly positive and glowingly optimistic ending for Home in a Lunchbox and with both my inner child and also adult I enjoying not only Mo's nearly wordless and oh so relatable story but also appreciating the informative supplemental details being provided. But just to say in conclusion that there in my humble opinion should also be some recipes provided in Home in a Lunchbox, and I do have to admit that while for me what Cherry Mo has provided and shown in Home in a Lunchbox is both delightfully wonderful and also as already mentioned above majorly relatable, in particular my inner and recently arrived in Canada from Germany child is actually somewhat envious regarding the positive ending for Home in a Lunchbox (since this certainly did not happen for me at school and that my classmates tended to always make fun of my German lunches and that even the teachers were annoyed and critical that I brought deli meats, pickles, spätzle and sauerkraut in my lunchboxes).
February 21, 2025
Fresh from Hong Kong with her immigrant parents, little Jun starts school knowing a literal handful of English words. Overwhelmed, her single comfort every weekday is the lunch her mother has made for her that reminds her of her real home. And her visible joy over the wonderful smelling food is just the icebreaker she needs.
The art is deliciously cute, and the story rightly relies on it to tell most of the story, with just a few word balloons here and there.
Super sweet.
The art is deliciously cute, and the story rightly relies on it to tell most of the story, with just a few word balloons here and there.
Super sweet.
November 17, 2024
I don’t rate many picture books. For one thing, my son is mostly too old for them now, so I don’t borrow as many from the library. This one is an exception, though. What a moving story! Told with very few words and an amazing use of color and illustrations, it shows how a girl new to the US and with very little English navigates starting at a new school in a new country. Her lunch from home is the one place of love and belonging in her day at first, and the way it is depicted is so wonderful. And the panel where she arrives home after her first day made me cry. The book ends in a hopeful way, though. I am in awe of how much is conveyed in so few pages and with so few words.
August 24, 2024
Beautifully illustrated with heart-warming messages about patience, kindness, and inclusivity without the need of extensive dialogue to convey them. Cleverly designed, too! After you read it, look under the dust jacket for a lovely nod to Jun's story.
June 11, 2024
Brought tears to my eyes.
June 29, 2024
Home in a Lunchbox by Cherry Mo is gorgeous, endearing, heartbreaking, and heartwarming all at once. As a former ESOL teacher for adults, my heart went out to Jun in her first days of school in a new country with a language she doesn’t speak or understand … except for the handful (literally) of words she’s penned in her palm for consulting throughout the day. I wanted to reach in and hug her from the rough beginning to the hope-filled end of this sweet picture book.
The author’s choice to use minimal text, conveying the story in mostly pictures, serves multiple insightful purposes. Not only does it help readers empathize more with Jun by showing what the world is like when you can’t understand the language around you, it hopefully will prompt them to reach out to students like Jun more easily in the future, too. It also allows readers whose language of origin is not English to immediately identify with Jun AND have a book they don’t have to struggle to read. But even beyond the obvious multicultural lessons, Home in a Lunchbox provides all readers with a loving reminder that we don’t have to be at home to feel the warmth and security of home (or … for those who don’t have a safe home, maybe it’s school or church that represents that safety instead).
Bottom Line: What Home in a Lunchbox by Cherry Mo conveys with only a few words will linger in my heart for a long time. Thanks to the vibrant illustrations that capture Jun’s emotions and struggles so poignantly, as well as the little details that point to her home culture, it doesn’t need a lot of text to speak volumes. I loved the warmth that home represents to adorable Jun, the comforting power of familiar food and a mother’s hug, and I especially appreciated the way that Jun’s lunch – so different from that of her peers – is the catalyst to new friendships and not a negative. This is certainly a beautiful and emotional look at the immigrant experience – and an important tool to foster compassion and education – but it’s relatable to all children on a deeper level, too. Every time I look through it, I find something new to love. Home in a Lunchbox is touching, sweet, and simply gorgeous – a wonderful addition to anyone’s home/school/church library. I’m glad it’s in mine.
(I voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy of this book)
first reviewed at Reading Is My SuperPower
The author’s choice to use minimal text, conveying the story in mostly pictures, serves multiple insightful purposes. Not only does it help readers empathize more with Jun by showing what the world is like when you can’t understand the language around you, it hopefully will prompt them to reach out to students like Jun more easily in the future, too. It also allows readers whose language of origin is not English to immediately identify with Jun AND have a book they don’t have to struggle to read. But even beyond the obvious multicultural lessons, Home in a Lunchbox provides all readers with a loving reminder that we don’t have to be at home to feel the warmth and security of home (or … for those who don’t have a safe home, maybe it’s school or church that represents that safety instead).
Bottom Line: What Home in a Lunchbox by Cherry Mo conveys with only a few words will linger in my heart for a long time. Thanks to the vibrant illustrations that capture Jun’s emotions and struggles so poignantly, as well as the little details that point to her home culture, it doesn’t need a lot of text to speak volumes. I loved the warmth that home represents to adorable Jun, the comforting power of familiar food and a mother’s hug, and I especially appreciated the way that Jun’s lunch – so different from that of her peers – is the catalyst to new friendships and not a negative. This is certainly a beautiful and emotional look at the immigrant experience – and an important tool to foster compassion and education – but it’s relatable to all children on a deeper level, too. Every time I look through it, I find something new to love. Home in a Lunchbox is touching, sweet, and simply gorgeous – a wonderful addition to anyone’s home/school/church library. I’m glad it’s in mine.
(I voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy of this book)
first reviewed at Reading Is My SuperPower
January 30, 2025
I forget who recommended this to me but it was everything. Wish I was 2 years old so someone could read this to me at bedtime
June 24, 2024
My new favorite 2024 release. Debut author/illustrator, Cherry Mo, has hit the ball out of the park with her new picture book. Heartfelt, incredibly well written and illustrated. I love it!
November 13, 2024
Beautifully illustrated picture book about inclusivity and kindness.
December 10, 2024
A favorite of 2024
November 17, 2025
read for a project, this one is actually so wonderful and beautifully done. gorgeous artwork, tells so much story while being mostly wordless!
June 23, 2024
Not quite wordless. Also some graphic novel features. Under the dust jacket is FABULOUS!
October 31, 2024
10/30/24 I am raising this one to 3.5 stars. I reread it as Mock Caldecott preview. Looking at it through a picture book lens, this is a beautiful story about the joy of sharing a meal and how food can connect us.
10/20/24 This one reminded me a lot of Young Vo's Gibberish. In this mostly wordless picture book, a young girl can't understand the classmates around her and her attempts at English are not well received.
10/20/24 This one reminded me a lot of Young Vo's Gibberish. In this mostly wordless picture book, a young girl can't understand the classmates around her and her attempts at English are not well received.
January 22, 2025
Jun is a young immigrant girl from Hong Kong. She feels isolated and alone at her new school in America because she doesn't know the language. However, she finds comfort in the familiar food packed in her lunchbox.
The author’s autobiographical take on the immigrant experience in a new school in a new country is told mostly through the beautiful illustrations and sparse dialogue, which so perfectly captures what these students experience while learning a new language. They literally do not have the words, and are so easily overwhelmed by their new experiences. It’s a great story for multi-language learners, or Dual Immersion classrooms, and it’s one that is applicable for all ages. Definitely recommend it for your classroom library.
The author’s autobiographical take on the immigrant experience in a new school in a new country is told mostly through the beautiful illustrations and sparse dialogue, which so perfectly captures what these students experience while learning a new language. They literally do not have the words, and are so easily overwhelmed by their new experiences. It’s a great story for multi-language learners, or Dual Immersion classrooms, and it’s one that is applicable for all ages. Definitely recommend it for your classroom library.
February 9, 2025
I adored this. The illustrations are cute and cartoony without being vomitous. The story is kind without feeling fake. There are so many picture books about an immigrant kid bringing "weird food" to school and being mocked before finally being accepted; the plot of Home in a Lunchbox is such a refreshing change. No one makes fun of our protagonist's food! they all find it DELICIOUS! The problem here is a language barrier, which causes our little heroine's loneliness (plus the fact that in Hong Kong you'd say "toilet" instead of "bathroom," and American kindergarteners screech at the public use of the word "toilet"). Just get it and talk about it with the wee folks in your life, especially now when adults in charge are demonizing "the other" like whoa.
January 29, 2025
5 stars. Jun is having a rough first week at school in the United States after moving from Hong Kong, her only bright spot in her day is when she opens her lunchbox. All she hears is gibberish until one day a classmate sees her name on the lunchbox and they connect over trying each other’s food. Love the ending and illustrations of food. The last page will make you hungry!
April 14, 2025
A little Chinese girl who only speaks Cantonese struggles with language barriers when school begins, but she quickly learns that food can bridge cultural differences and provide a common means of communication. Appetizing illustrations add to the appeal of the story’s message. End pages include a glossary of Cantonese words mentioned in the story and a diagram of what’s in Jun’s lunchbox. Yum!
January 8, 2025
I need another tag. Books that make me cry. OMG! This is so astounding beautiful. Just breathtaking. The part that made we cry was when the kids shared their lunches—because that is just what kids do. So stunningly beautiful. Definitely a March Madness book.
October 9, 2024
This was such a beautiful book and actually made me cry. The artwork is incredible. I loved this book.
November 24, 2024
Illustrations are amazing. For a debut novel so impressive. It is a shame there were not better transition plans in place when the author moved to America. It seemed too unbelievable- but is based on her experiences.
February 19, 2025
Reading age
4 - 8 years
CALDECOTT HONOR 2025
4 - 8 years
CALDECOTT HONOR 2025
February 23, 2025
Cute, wholesome and delicious!
March 2, 2025
Sweet story
July 11, 2024
The lunchroom occupies a very particular location in the pantheon of childhood experiences. It’s one of the few places in an average school day where a child’s individual choices come into sharp relief. Who to sit with. Who to avoid. Whether you’re there or serving lunchtime detention (that one must have been special to my school district since I’ve yet to see it portrayed in a book). And, of course, the food you buy or bring. If you’re on a free lunch program, there’s that aspect to deal with. If you buy school lunch with your own money then there’s the possibility of a bully stealing that money. And, of course, if you bring your own lunch with you, your food can say loads about you, your life, and your choices. Picture books about children’s lunches have been coming out since Rosemary Wells’ Yoko, and probably long before that as well. A librarian could probably make an entire display of lunch-oriented children’s books without breaking a sweat. We see so many that when you see a cover like Home In a Lunchbox you just naturally assume you’ve seen it all before. Kid moving to new country? Check. Lunch that hails from the country they left? Check. But Cherry Mo, debut picture book author/illustrator, isn’t interested in looking at what other picture book creators are doing. Wholly focused on her own character’s story, she takes a well-loved idea and renders it bright, shiny, and new with sheer talent alone. It’s a vibrant take on a tale as old as lunchtime.
Open the book and the first thing you see on the endpapers are two locations. On the left-hand side you see Hong Kong at night, the skyline lit up by fireworks. On the right-hand side we’re in an American suburb (U.S. flag on proud display), with a moving van driving down the street. We meet Jun immediately after. She’s off to her first day of school, a cheat sheet written on her hand. She immediately meets another girl but the language barrier is too tricky to overcome. What follows is frustration and more than a little confusion. Fortunately, once lunchtime rolls around, there’s something familiar waiting for her in that little lunch box. A sea of memories wash over Jun. The days go by and so many things just seem to just go wrong. Then, one day, awash in the happiness that comes with her lunch, the girl who spoke to her on that first day reaches out. Food is exchanged and tried. Introductions are made.
What is the name of a picture book that is essentially wordless without, technically, being wordless? Though language does appear in this book, it’s used far more as a prop than a way of communicating directly with the reader. Cherry Mo’s true talents, then, lie in her ability to tell a story almost entirely through images. Facial expressions, the use of color both to include and to exclude, whether a page consists of multiple scenes, a single scene, or a two-page spread of a single scene, all these choices are made with great skill and clarity. This has the dual advantage of not only placing you in its heroine’s shoes, but also makes the book accessible to those kids who might not have a firm grasp on the English language themselves. You don’t even have to know English or written/conversational Cantonese to comprehend what’s going on. This might sound like a no-brainer, but it’s interesting to notice how many books about language barriers are filled with them themselves.
The book is good. Heck, the book is great. So what tips a book over the edge from one state to another for me? I mean, there are a LOT of perfectly good picture books out in a given year. Great ones are far more difficult to locate (and finding them requires loads of reading). For me, Cherry Mo’s style is significant. It breaks down in two ways. First, I don’t know her background but this art exudes a certain kind of feel you sometimes get from animators-turned-illustrators that's is hard to define. I think a lot of it has to do with facial expressions. The artist trained in that particular kind of sequential art must spend a lot of time working on the nuances of the human face. Mo’s art isn’t what you’d label as “cartoonish” but it has all the hallmarks of the best kinds of animated films and shows. I should note that some folks automatically associate all things cartoonish with bad, particularly when we talk about picture books. This unfair assessment often doesn’t take into account just how difficult it is to do this kind of art well, and it certainly doesn’t look at the skill needed to transfer from screen to page (many is the animator-turned-illustrator whose books just look like tweaked storyboards and not legitimate stories in their own right).
The other way in which this book caught my attention was a little more flashy. When I read it through the first time, I did notice the subtle ways in which Mo was tweaking her artistic style as the story progressed. The moments that become two-page spreads were always emotional, and I love how the book really knows how to drive an emotional beat home for the reader. So out of curiosity I decided to track these moments. There’s no pattern, but when I write down the emotions in order they pretty much dictate the feel of the book. It goes sad, happy, sad, sad, sad, happy, happy, happy. Sometimes a two-page spread will immediately follow another two-page spread. There’s a happy to sad at the beginning and then a sad to happy near the end. If it’s intentional then it’s exceedingly clever since you unconsciously note this shift in the character’s emotions (and, by extension, your own).
But I’m burying the lede a bit because the real reason this book won me over wasn’t necessarily because of all of Cherry Mo’s clever visual choices (I can’t pretend to have even noticed them initially). It was a single, solitary picture that did it for me, and when I try to describe it here for you I’m going to run up against a bit of a wall. I don't know that words are equal to what this picture is doing. It’s a two-page spread of Jun eating and happy. More precisely, it’s the moment right before the other kids reach out to her because she just looks so doggone blissful. It was therefore imperative for the artist to make THIS picture the one that sticks. So what she does is make it look almost more like a painting than an illustration in a picture book. I can’t say that it looks realistic, because it doesn’t. It just looks more intentional. It pops off the page. Yes, there are a bunch of cartoon hearts flying around, but honestly you don’t even see them. What you see is Jun’s expression. Her closed eyes. The way the light bounces off of her bangs. And because Mo has shifted her style for just this one single image, you completely understand why the other kids would be curious and reach out. Their reaction doesn’t come out of nowhere because if you saw someone glowing with the inner light of contentment that Jun is sporting here, you’d reach out too!
Now if I’m a nitpicker (and picking nits is kinda my raison d’etre) then I’d say that Jun’s lunchtime acceptance into the group of Rose, Juan, and Daniel jumps a bit too quickly from learning their names to bringing them home for a thousand layer pancake. I could buy the instant friendship but going to someone’s house is (I can tell you as a mother) a whole different ballgame. This, however, is not the book creator’s fault. The fault lies in the fact that Mo pretty much has run out of time by the story’s end. Picture books come in 32, 40, or 48 page bundles (usually). And since Mo wanted to include some incredible backmatter as well (more on that in a sec) she had a choice to make. She could have either gone from the lunch scene to two pages of different becoming-friends sequences and THEN ended with coming home with friends to food, thereby eschewing the backmatter, OR she could have included the backmatter, which is cool but does make that narrative leap a little harder to swallow. If I had been the editor of this book, I would have changed the kids’ clothes between the lunchroom and the arrival in the home, if only to suggest that a little more time has passed. But, of course, I’m a nitpicker.
That backmatter though! I host a children’s picture book podcast with my sister where we read through picture books that are at least 20 years old and decide whether or not they should be deemed “classics” today. One thing that I’ve noticed while recording this podcast is that books of the past loathed backmatter. And honestly, when you look at books imported from around the world, picture books from other countries (even the nonfiction ones) hate it as well. It’s kind of interesting and hard to fathom. I can only assume that it has something to do with the fact that it requires an extra amount of work, thought, and creativity, and that in the case of fictional stories some adults may feel that it distances the reader from the story. For example, what if Blueberries for Sal ended with a recipe for canning your own blueberries rather than that final iconic spread on the endpapers of Sal and her mom canning in the kitchen? I can see it both ways, but honestly, there’s a simple solution to this. You want to read Home in a Lunchbox and retain the magical experience of reading it? Flip past the backmatter and get to the endpapers. There you go. Problem solved.
As for the backmatter itself, it’s split into two different sections. On the left-hand side you have a graph entitled “What are the words on Jun’s hand?” It then provides the English and then the written and conversational Cantonese on the right. “What’s in Jun’s lunchbox?” is on the right, and it was here that I really got excited. Cherry Mo provides an illustration of a typical lunchbox for Jun with each food carefully labeled and described. As a mom who basically just slaps a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, chips, fruit, and cookie in my son’s lunchbox every schoolday, this is the kind of meticulous and delicious fare that puts me to shame. No wonder the kids want what she’s having! There are even descriptions of foods just spotted in Jun’s house throughout the story, illustrated within an inch of their lives. Warning: Do not read on empty stomach.
Yeah, I kinda like the book. And to be clear, this isn’t the last cultural-experiences-attained-in-the-lunchroom book for kids we’re going to see. As I mentioned before, there really aren’t a lot of times when a kid’s culture is casually on display for other children to see. The lunchroom is the perfect staging ground for larger issues. Issues like moving to America from Hong Kong and dealing with cultural, social, language changes. Pairing beautifully with Gibberish by Young Vo and Here I Am by Patti Kim, the book’s a standout and a delicious one to boot. It ain’t preachy. It ain’t smarmy. It’s just plain good.
Open the book and the first thing you see on the endpapers are two locations. On the left-hand side you see Hong Kong at night, the skyline lit up by fireworks. On the right-hand side we’re in an American suburb (U.S. flag on proud display), with a moving van driving down the street. We meet Jun immediately after. She’s off to her first day of school, a cheat sheet written on her hand. She immediately meets another girl but the language barrier is too tricky to overcome. What follows is frustration and more than a little confusion. Fortunately, once lunchtime rolls around, there’s something familiar waiting for her in that little lunch box. A sea of memories wash over Jun. The days go by and so many things just seem to just go wrong. Then, one day, awash in the happiness that comes with her lunch, the girl who spoke to her on that first day reaches out. Food is exchanged and tried. Introductions are made.
What is the name of a picture book that is essentially wordless without, technically, being wordless? Though language does appear in this book, it’s used far more as a prop than a way of communicating directly with the reader. Cherry Mo’s true talents, then, lie in her ability to tell a story almost entirely through images. Facial expressions, the use of color both to include and to exclude, whether a page consists of multiple scenes, a single scene, or a two-page spread of a single scene, all these choices are made with great skill and clarity. This has the dual advantage of not only placing you in its heroine’s shoes, but also makes the book accessible to those kids who might not have a firm grasp on the English language themselves. You don’t even have to know English or written/conversational Cantonese to comprehend what’s going on. This might sound like a no-brainer, but it’s interesting to notice how many books about language barriers are filled with them themselves.
The book is good. Heck, the book is great. So what tips a book over the edge from one state to another for me? I mean, there are a LOT of perfectly good picture books out in a given year. Great ones are far more difficult to locate (and finding them requires loads of reading). For me, Cherry Mo’s style is significant. It breaks down in two ways. First, I don’t know her background but this art exudes a certain kind of feel you sometimes get from animators-turned-illustrators that's is hard to define. I think a lot of it has to do with facial expressions. The artist trained in that particular kind of sequential art must spend a lot of time working on the nuances of the human face. Mo’s art isn’t what you’d label as “cartoonish” but it has all the hallmarks of the best kinds of animated films and shows. I should note that some folks automatically associate all things cartoonish with bad, particularly when we talk about picture books. This unfair assessment often doesn’t take into account just how difficult it is to do this kind of art well, and it certainly doesn’t look at the skill needed to transfer from screen to page (many is the animator-turned-illustrator whose books just look like tweaked storyboards and not legitimate stories in their own right).
The other way in which this book caught my attention was a little more flashy. When I read it through the first time, I did notice the subtle ways in which Mo was tweaking her artistic style as the story progressed. The moments that become two-page spreads were always emotional, and I love how the book really knows how to drive an emotional beat home for the reader. So out of curiosity I decided to track these moments. There’s no pattern, but when I write down the emotions in order they pretty much dictate the feel of the book. It goes sad, happy, sad, sad, sad, happy, happy, happy. Sometimes a two-page spread will immediately follow another two-page spread. There’s a happy to sad at the beginning and then a sad to happy near the end. If it’s intentional then it’s exceedingly clever since you unconsciously note this shift in the character’s emotions (and, by extension, your own).
But I’m burying the lede a bit because the real reason this book won me over wasn’t necessarily because of all of Cherry Mo’s clever visual choices (I can’t pretend to have even noticed them initially). It was a single, solitary picture that did it for me, and when I try to describe it here for you I’m going to run up against a bit of a wall. I don't know that words are equal to what this picture is doing. It’s a two-page spread of Jun eating and happy. More precisely, it’s the moment right before the other kids reach out to her because she just looks so doggone blissful. It was therefore imperative for the artist to make THIS picture the one that sticks. So what she does is make it look almost more like a painting than an illustration in a picture book. I can’t say that it looks realistic, because it doesn’t. It just looks more intentional. It pops off the page. Yes, there are a bunch of cartoon hearts flying around, but honestly you don’t even see them. What you see is Jun’s expression. Her closed eyes. The way the light bounces off of her bangs. And because Mo has shifted her style for just this one single image, you completely understand why the other kids would be curious and reach out. Their reaction doesn’t come out of nowhere because if you saw someone glowing with the inner light of contentment that Jun is sporting here, you’d reach out too!
Now if I’m a nitpicker (and picking nits is kinda my raison d’etre) then I’d say that Jun’s lunchtime acceptance into the group of Rose, Juan, and Daniel jumps a bit too quickly from learning their names to bringing them home for a thousand layer pancake. I could buy the instant friendship but going to someone’s house is (I can tell you as a mother) a whole different ballgame. This, however, is not the book creator’s fault. The fault lies in the fact that Mo pretty much has run out of time by the story’s end. Picture books come in 32, 40, or 48 page bundles (usually). And since Mo wanted to include some incredible backmatter as well (more on that in a sec) she had a choice to make. She could have either gone from the lunch scene to two pages of different becoming-friends sequences and THEN ended with coming home with friends to food, thereby eschewing the backmatter, OR she could have included the backmatter, which is cool but does make that narrative leap a little harder to swallow. If I had been the editor of this book, I would have changed the kids’ clothes between the lunchroom and the arrival in the home, if only to suggest that a little more time has passed. But, of course, I’m a nitpicker.
That backmatter though! I host a children’s picture book podcast with my sister where we read through picture books that are at least 20 years old and decide whether or not they should be deemed “classics” today. One thing that I’ve noticed while recording this podcast is that books of the past loathed backmatter. And honestly, when you look at books imported from around the world, picture books from other countries (even the nonfiction ones) hate it as well. It’s kind of interesting and hard to fathom. I can only assume that it has something to do with the fact that it requires an extra amount of work, thought, and creativity, and that in the case of fictional stories some adults may feel that it distances the reader from the story. For example, what if Blueberries for Sal ended with a recipe for canning your own blueberries rather than that final iconic spread on the endpapers of Sal and her mom canning in the kitchen? I can see it both ways, but honestly, there’s a simple solution to this. You want to read Home in a Lunchbox and retain the magical experience of reading it? Flip past the backmatter and get to the endpapers. There you go. Problem solved.
As for the backmatter itself, it’s split into two different sections. On the left-hand side you have a graph entitled “What are the words on Jun’s hand?” It then provides the English and then the written and conversational Cantonese on the right. “What’s in Jun’s lunchbox?” is on the right, and it was here that I really got excited. Cherry Mo provides an illustration of a typical lunchbox for Jun with each food carefully labeled and described. As a mom who basically just slaps a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, chips, fruit, and cookie in my son’s lunchbox every schoolday, this is the kind of meticulous and delicious fare that puts me to shame. No wonder the kids want what she’s having! There are even descriptions of foods just spotted in Jun’s house throughout the story, illustrated within an inch of their lives. Warning: Do not read on empty stomach.
Yeah, I kinda like the book. And to be clear, this isn’t the last cultural-experiences-attained-in-the-lunchroom book for kids we’re going to see. As I mentioned before, there really aren’t a lot of times when a kid’s culture is casually on display for other children to see. The lunchroom is the perfect staging ground for larger issues. Issues like moving to America from Hong Kong and dealing with cultural, social, language changes. Pairing beautifully with Gibberish by Young Vo and Here I Am by Patti Kim, the book’s a standout and a delicious one to boot. It ain’t preachy. It ain’t smarmy. It’s just plain good.
April 11, 2025
This book brought out so many feels with very few words. Food really does carry with it so many memories and feelings and can create the power connection with others. Absolutely adorable!
January 28, 2025
This was my pick for the Caldecott award. It didn't win, but it's a winner in my eyes with it's stunning pictures and endearing story.
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