The Fascinating History of Your Lunch

by Jackie French, Judith Rossell (Illustrator)

This work takes an historical look at food from right around the world. Who invented cheese? Or bread and margarine? Where did lettuce and tomato plants originally come from? The plants we eat nowadays come from all over the world and the ways we cook and eat them also come from many different cultures. It is intended for ages 9+.

Genres: Nonfiction

192 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 2001

About the author

Jackie is an award-winning writer, wombat negotiator and the Australian Children’s Laureate for 2014-2015. She is regarded as one of Australia’s most popular children’s authors, and writes across all genres - from picture books, history, fantasy, ecology and sci-fi to her much loved historical fiction. In her capacity as Australian Children’s Laureate, ‘Share a Story’ will be the primary philosophy behind Jackie’s two-year term.

Reviews

[Mima · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fantastic romp through history, without any of the boring bits. I am starting to get a bit tired of the word 'fascinating', though.

This book has to go back to the library, and I hope to read more of it another time.

[Michelle Hickey · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting look at the origins of different foods. It is aimed at upper primary but I don't think it's aged well. I think it is too long for contemporary audiences and could use more illustrations.

[Amanda Witt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Written for kids, so basic/brief explanations of each food's history/origin, but good information. Also contains many recipes from Jackie's own experience with her family.

[Miss Bookiverse · Rating 2 out of 5]

I quit reading somewhere around the 2nd chapter. I'm neither a fan of non-fiction books nor of history, so this book just didn't hold much for me. Jackie French managed to make me smile a few times with her funny remarks but all in all the paragraphs just really bored me.
I skipped through the rest of the book, read some interesting parts here and there but all in all this book contains too much information that is repeated in different words and with a different context throughout the book.
I had expected much more from Miss French.

[Rebecca]

I'd been wanting to read this book years ago because it sounded fascinating. I remember reading a segment about the history of ice cream and all the different nationalities arguing that they themselves invented ice cream. It was really interesting. Being a person who absolutely loves food I adored this book. It not only had history of different foods and some really fascinating facts about them but it also mentioned some really interesting recipes that I would really like to try some day.