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Lunch Lady #5

Lunch Lady and the Bake Sale Bandit

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From the author of National Book Award finalist  Hey, Kiddo .

The Breakfast Bunch is excited for the upcoming bake sale—and the best part is that it's raising money for an awesome field trip.  But when all the snacks go missing, it's no laughing matter.  Someone is sabotaging the bake sale.  But why?

Lunch Lady and the Breakfast Bunch are hot on the trail . . . one brownie crumb at a time.

96 pages, Paperback

First published December 28, 2010

86 people are currently reading
1457 people want to read

About the author

Jarrett J. Krosoczka

66 books923 followers
Jarrett J. Krosoczka, known since boyhood as "JJK," is the New York Times bestselling author/illustrator behind more than forty books for young readers, including his wildly popular Lunch Lady graphic novels, select volumes of the Star Wars™: Jedi Academy series, and Hey, Kiddo, which was a National Book Award Finalist. Krosoczka creates books with humor, heart, and deep respect for his young readers—qualities that have made his titles perennial favorites on the bookshelves of homes, libraries, and bookstores over the past twenty years.

In addition to his work in print, Krosoczka produced, directed, and performed in the full-cast audiobook adaptations of his graphic novels. The Hey, Kidoo audiobook garnered both Audie and Odyssey Awards for excellence in audiobook production. The Lunch Lady audiobook cast is led by Kate Flannery (The Office) and is rounded out by famed audiobook narrators and real kid actors! Krosoczka has been a guest on NPR's Fresh Air with Terry Gross, has been profiled in The New York Times, was featured on Good Morning America, and has delivered three TED Talks, which have accrued millions of views online. Krosoczka has garnered millions of more views online via the tutorials he has produced for YouTube and TikTok. As well as working on his books' film and television adaptions, Krosoczka has also written for The Snoopy Show (Apple TV+) and served as a consultant for Creative Galaxy (Prime Video), and appeared in live segments for the show.

Realizing that his books can inspire young readers beyond the page, Krosoczka founded School Lunch Hero Day, a national campaign celebrating school lunch staff. A consummate advocate for arts education, Krosoczka also established the Joseph and Shirley Krosoczka Memorial Youth Scholarships, which fund art classes for underprivileged children in his hometown of Worcester, Massachusetts.

Krosoczka lives in western Massachusetts with his spouse, their three children, pugs Ralph and Frank, and a French bulldog named Bella Carmella.

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5 stars
2,308 (55%)
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886 (21%)
3 stars
647 (15%)
2 stars
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108 (2%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 117 reviews
Profile Image for Kari.
38 reviews
July 4, 2011
Who would have thought that their lunch lady (or gentleman) was a superhero on the side? The principal at Thompson Brook has organized a bake sale to raise funds for a field trip to a generic museum. On the day of the sale, all of the goodies go missing. In this fifth part of the series, Lunch Lady must catch the Bake Sale Bandit with the help of her sidekick Betty and the Breakfast Bunch. The premise of having a lunch lady for a superhero presents a comical, non-traditional twist to the genre. The black, white, gray, and yellow color scheme works well in this action packed graphic novel. The writing and subject matter is far from top-notch, but kids will find the plots humorous and the school environment familiar as they daydream about ways in which everyday life can be overtaken by scary bus driver villains.
Profile Image for Anthony.
7,262 reviews31 followers
July 17, 2019
Someone has stolen all the goodies for the bake sale at Thompson Brook, whose proceeds were to finance the field trip to the museum. It's now up to the Breakfast Bunch and Lunch Lady to follow the crumbs left behind, and solve the mystery of the Bake Sale Bandit.
Profile Image for Christy Broderick⁷.
686 reviews17 followers
July 23, 2019
Another crime stopped by Lunch Lady, Betty and the Breakfast Bunch 💕 Looking forward to see what happens next on the field trip...
Profile Image for LibraryMouse.
22 reviews3 followers
September 7, 2022
This book is great 👍🏻🦴🌭🍔🍕🍟🥐🍖🍳🥓🥩🧀🥚🍗🥞🥖🥖🍠🥔🥥🥦🥕🌽🌶🍞🍞🥯🥐🥐🥖🥖🧀🥚🍳🍖🍖🥩🥞🦴🦴🌭🍔🍕🍕🥗🌯🌮🥙🥪🥪🥘🥘🥫🍝🍝🍜🍜🍲🍤🥟🥟🍱🍚🍛🍛🍨🍧🍡🍢🥮🍚🍘🍥🥠🎂🍰🥧🍮🍭🍬🍫🍿🍿🍯🥜🌰🌰🍩🍩🥛☕️🍵🥤🥤🥄🍷🥂🍻🍺🥃🥃🍸🍹🍾🥢🥡🥣🍽🍴🧂
30 reviews1 follower
February 22, 2014
This novel is a great way to get students who do not like to read because this book has a lot of action and illustrations.
The story starts off with a grumpy bus driver Brenda. She doesn't like the students making her bus all dirty but changes her attitude in front of the principal. The Breakfast Brunch, Dee, Hector and Terrence, realize that the bus driver is not very nice. At the school there is a bake sale going on to fund the students' trip to the museum. Lunch Lady is in charge of the bake sale, but has to leave all the baked goods to sign for taco shells. Lunch Lady and Betty, Lunch Lady's assistant, come back and see all the baked goods are gone! The students might not be able to go on their field trip if Lunch Lady doesn't find out who stole all the baked goods. The principal tells the students that the field trip is off because someone stole all the items the students had brought earlier this morning. The students were very upset, except Mrs. Chalahan who teaching health and says that eating sweets is very bad for you. The Breakfast Bunch wants to find out who had stolen all the cupcakes. Lunch Lady and Betty are trying to do the same thing! The Breakfast Bunch gets in trouble because Orson, a fellow student who is the safety patrol officer, tells on them. The Breakfast Bunch then decide to skip detention and go try and find the culprit anyway! They get caught by Orson...and then they all get caught by a mystery person who takes them on a bus to a secret location. The Lunch Lady is close behind! The students find out the the person who stole all the baked goods was Brenda the bus driver because all those cupcakes were going to get her bus dirty! And she didn't want to drive the students to their field trip because it would put wear and tear onto the schoolbus. The Lunch Lady comes to the rescue of the children and fights with Brenda..but Brenda had created Buszilla and Lunch Lady has to become creative with how she deals with Brenda. Luckily Betty and the Breakfast Bunch pelt Brenda with cupcakes and justice is served. The next day they had the bake sale and were able to book their field trip but at the very end Brenda has taken over the secretary's spot and is going to try to ruin the students field trip.
I think that this novel would be great for students to read on their own because it is a quick and easy read, but it has a lot of action and mystery! This would be good to entice students who do not like to read. I think that this book would be great as an independent read or a class read aloud for older students.
I think that the cover makes students know that the book is filled with action. For this reason I think students would like to pick the book from the shelves. Even though, the illustrations are simple they convey what the rest of the story is about. The illustrations in the novel were like an old comic book! This would really appeal to the students, both boys and girls. I like how the illustrations were only done in yellow, black and white. I believe that this gave an old comic feel. Also it was a creative way to draw the reader's attention around the page. The illustrations were done in simple drawings, which I thought benefited the story line. Even though, the illustrations were drawn in a simple manner they still had enough detail to describe the story. I think that if there were more complicated drawings it would have taken away from the novel.
I think this book would be great to read aloud once for the class, but then let the students read on their own the next book in the series.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Profile Image for Dolly.
Author 1 book670 followers
September 1, 2013
This is the fifth book in the Lunch Lady series by Jarrett J. Krosoczka. We just started reading this series this summer and our girls really like the stories. They are fun, fast reads and I love that the superheroes are women.

Our youngest really loves the Babymouse and Squish series by Jennifer L. Holm and Matthew Holm, so we are excited to find another fun graphic novel series.

The story was an exciting, quick read and I can see the books appealing to both boys and girls. The illustrations are very cartoonish, in black and white with yellow tints, and there's lots of action and fighting. Overall, our girls enjoyed reading this book and so did I. I am sure that we'll read more of the books in this series soon.
Profile Image for Laura.
1,520 reviews253 followers
March 29, 2012
“Jumping jelly!” Someone has stolen the goodies for the school’s bake sale! Can Lunch Lady foil this dastardly plan to spoil the fundraiser? Readers will be hanging on every “Bah!”, “BOOF!”, and crumb clue to help solve the mystery before the final school bell rings!

Jarrett Krosoczka’s Lunch Lady graphic novel series holds one of my favorite characters to root for and follow. I mean—Come on! She has the coolest toys! Armed with everything from a cookie cam to rubber glove suction cups, Lunch Lady and her trusted sidekick, Betty (every super hero needs one)--protect the school, the kids, and serve up lunch all at the same time! The woman rocks!

Every page captures Mr. Krosoczka’s enthusiasm and love for the genre and characters. The yellow infused illustrations highlight and energize the action and adventure! These stories always make me smile.

A fun series for any and all graphic novel fans!

Favorite Quote:

“It’s as dark as the inside of a chocolate doughnut in here!” :D

Profile Image for Gabi.
110 reviews
July 27, 2011
When the school field trip depends on the earnings of a school wide bake sale, it's no good when the goods go missing! Luckily, Lunch Lady is back and on the case to keep an on the Breakfast Bunch and figure out who is behind the nefarious cupcake theft. This is a great series for young readers, reluctant and voracious, with appealing black/white/gray/yellow illustrations, funny characters, and a clever story line. Exclamations like "spicy salsa!" and cool tools like the Spork Phone will have everybody wishing their lunch person is secretly a super hero. (Plus, Betty could give Alfred a run for his money any day of the week!) Find out the fate of the cupcakes -and the field trip- in this Lunch Lady adventure.
Profile Image for Allison Renner.
Author 5 books36 followers
September 23, 2014
This is book #5 in the Lunch Lady series, but the first one I’ve read. I saw it on the library shelf and picked it up randomly, but I loved it and now want to read the whole series! It’s a fun graphic novel about a friendly, superhero Lunch Lady and the Breakfast Bunch, which is comprised of students in the school. In this book, a bake sale to raise funds for a field trip. When all the sweets are stolen, will the trip have to be cancelled? Or can Lunch Lady and the Breakfast Bunch solve the crime?
Profile Image for Gina.
80 reviews3 followers
June 2, 2017
This is my first time to read a Lunch Lady book. It is hilarious! Reads just like a comic book. I liked the way the Lunch Lady is the hero. It is action packed, and I read it in about 20 minutes. I can see why kids love the series!

I enjoyed the book. The comic format is a little different than reading a book, but once you get the hang of it, it's quite fun.

This would just be a fun read for grades 2-4. It's another book that would be good for pulling in struggling readers into the world of reading!
Profile Image for Katie.
667 reviews5 followers
December 22, 2020
It’s a bake sale day! The kids hope to raise enough money to be able to go on a field trip. But the health teacher is against all the sweets, and the bus driver and the janitor hate crumbs, and the gym and poetry teachers keep eyeing the treats....and they suddenly go missing! Who stole the yummy treats? No worries, Lunch Lady is on the case!!
Profile Image for Debbie.
2,164 reviews48 followers
May 9, 2017
Lunch Lady, book 5.

For fans of Captain Underpants who suspect that their school lunch lady just might be a secret superhero.

A lot of people hate school bake sales. Can the lunch lady save the day and find the stolen goodies?
Profile Image for WKPL Children's/YA Books.
390 reviews10 followers
April 25, 2018
Miss Linda read this book. One in a series of graphic fiction novels for 3rd-5th graders. Reads like a comic book. Imaginative, fast-paced and fun. Kids will love seeing what new cool gadgets Lunch Lady uses to capture the criminals!
Profile Image for Brooke.
2,548 reviews28 followers
April 28, 2020
Another cute LL episode. Nothing special if you know the series, but also nothing bothersome. I have a BFF from HS whose mom was one of our school lunch ladies. I might by her a set of these to read with her granddaughter. :)
Profile Image for Cris.
2,304 reviews26 followers
November 14, 2022
Lunch Lady v5

The school is having a bake sale so the children can go to the museum. Well they were until everything vanished! Can Lunch Lady solve the mystery? These are cute mysteries with just the right bit of humor!
Profile Image for Thaz.
456 reviews1 follower
November 25, 2024
As usual the breakfast bunch fight crime with lunch lady and her sidekick of a bake sale treat stealing bandit! Had so much fun reading this one. Can’t wait to read the last book I haven’t completed in this series.
62 reviews1 follower
Read
August 6, 2019
My family and I got into this series based on a recommendation from our neighbor. They are fun, entertaining and zany!
Profile Image for Savannah.
355 reviews
April 28, 2021
The annoying kids were annoying and the ending was guessable.
7 reviews
Read
March 6, 2022
I mean like it's cool that there was a dinosaur that was a bus.
Profile Image for Melissa.
1,106 reviews15 followers
August 10, 2022
Just sayin but my yelling excitedly with Lincoln all the food phrases like the Lunch Lady is a delight.
430 reviews3 followers
January 22, 2023
I liked it, the art design reminds me of Pepper Ann and my Mom says Lunch Lady reminds of My Granny and to me she reminds of the Kids next Door and a human Perry the Platypus that talks.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 117 reviews

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