Book Giveaway: THIS IS NOT MY LUNCH BOX! by Jennifer Dupuis

Jennifer Dupuis has a new non-fiction picture book, THIS IS NOT MY LUNCH BOX!, illustrated by Carol Schwatz was published by Tilbury House Publishers on April 16th. The publisher has agreed to send a copy of the book to one lucky winner in the US.

All you have to do to get in the running is leave a comment. Reblog, tweet, or talk about it on Facebook with a link, and you will get additional chances to win. Just let me know other things you do to share the good news, so I can put the right amount of tickets in my basket for you. Sharing on Facebook, Twitter, or reblogging really helps spread the word about a new book. Thanks for helping Jennifer and Carol.

If you have signed up to follow my blog and receive it daily, please let me know when you leave a comment, and I will give you an extra ticket. Thanks!

BOOK DESCRIPTION:

In a lush green woodland, a light-skinned child sets up a tent and hungrily opens a red lunchbox. Aaargh! It’s crawling with insects and spiders! “No thank you! I will NOT eat that! This is not my lunch box. This lunch box belongs to the…” A page turn reveals the answer: “downy woodpecker.” Over the course of the book, the child opens more differently colored lunchboxes to reveal the food preferences of a jumping mouse, black bear, praying mantis, moose, wood frog, red fox, American robin, skunk, lightning bug, and white-tailed deer. Each time, the same refrain appears. The contents are alliterative: “gnarly nuts, wiggling worms, tangy truffles”; “a fuzzy fly, an angry aphid, a meaty moth.” There’s no soft-pedaling some predators’ diets: Skunks do eat furry moles, and foxes do consume the little cousins of the cute mouse featured earlier. The child turns down many items that humans typically eat: strawberries, eggs, fish, and corn. But Schwartz’s precise, radiant, richly colored illustrations make even mealworms and larvae look tasty. On the final double-page spread, the child (whose own rainbow-hued lunchbox holds fruit, a cucumber, yogurt, and crackers) is one of a dozen diverse kids holding colorful lunchboxes, with most of the featured animals peeking from the trees behind them.

A lunch box filled with snails and spiders and eggs?! That is not MY lunchbox! Whose could it be?

Join in on a surprising camping trip and discover the favorite meals of all your favorite forest creatures–from the wood frog (who loves a lunch of spiders and snails!) to the moose. Rich art illustrates the beautiful biodiversity found in our forests and expressive, repetitive text helps even the youngest naturalists learn all about herbivores, omnivores, and carnivores–oh, my!

BOOK JOURNEY:

THIS IS NOT MY LUNCHBOX! was inspired by a bowl of baked beans. As every New Englander knows, baked beans are a way of life, on the menu at least once a month. And why not? They’re inexpensive, packed with protein, and in a pinch as easy as opening a can. Serve them with a slab of corn bread and voila, dinner is served! Okay, back to how this picture book was born.

It was shaping up to be a baked-beans-for-supper sort of day. With a kindergartener and third grader, two cats and ten chickens, life was busy, busy, busy! The last thing I wanted to hear when I popped open a can of beans that evening was, “Mom, I will NOT eat that!” Yes, my son had barfed up baked beans before; but that nasty incident had also coincided with a nasty stomach flu. Plus, six months had passed since then. Surely it was time for him to move on. And what was up with my kindergartener? Lately, he had been bringing home half the stuff in his lunchbox uneaten. The sandwich had been too sticky, the apple too mushy, the yogurt the wrong flavor. I give up!

That’s when it struck me: Someone needs to write a children’s book that parents as well as kids can relate to, a book that captures the times we Moms and Dads want to bang our heads against the table because mealtime has once again morphed into battle time! The book should be packed with plenty of humor and attitude. It should educate our young readers in a fun sort of way, perhaps include a guessing game because kids like to keep you guessing…

I’m happy to tell you that my sons, now 16 and 13, are no longer picky eaters. In fact, they pretty much devour anything I plunk down in front of them. Turns out they just needed time to grow into their appetites; so, if you’ve got a young one proclaiming, “I will NOT eat that!” hang in there—there’s hope for him or her yet!

JENNIFER’S BIO:

Jennifer Dupuis is a blind children’s book author who enjoys beekeeping, ballroom dancing, and playing her guitar for anyone who will listen. You can find her YouTube channel at “Living with Blindness and Balance.” Having worked with children for thirty-five years, she recognizes the power of laughter in learning and thus weaves wonderful humor into all that she writes.

Jennifer lives in southern Maine with her husband and two sons and is proud to have received
the 2020 Evelyn Morrill Durgin Award for her years of work as a volunteer within her community.

CAROL’S BIO:

A constant supply of drawing materials accompanied Carol while growing up in Missouri. She graduated with a BFA from the Kansas City Art Institute, attending her senior year at Rhode Island School of Design. In 2014 she received her MFA from the University of Hartford, Connecticut. Her illustrations have appeared in over 60 picture books including My Busy Green Garden, which Kirkus called “a lovely literary and artistic rendering.” Her other books include Sea Squares, an Outstanding Science Trade Book and Children’s Choice Award winner; The Maiden of Northland, an Aesop Accolade winner; and Thinking about Ants, an Outstanding, plus Science Trade Books and countless magazines, newspapers and advertisements.

With a focus on science and nature, a few of the companies Carol has worked with include Scholastic, Hyperion, National Geographic Society, National Wildlife Federation, and The Washington Post. Her children’s books have been chosen as Outstanding Science Trade Books by the National Science Teacher’s Association and Children’s Book Council and have been honored with the Children’s Choice Book Award and included in the Original Art exhibition at the Society of Illustrators in New York. Her artwork has been exhibited throughout the country, including Focus on Nature XIV and XV, The Society of Illustrators in New York, and The Illustrator’s Club of Washington DC. Carol’s work is included in the Society of Illustrators permanent collection from the exhibition, Women Illustrators Past and Present.

Carol now lives in Connecticut where she is Assistant Professor of Illustration at the Hartford Art School, University of Hartford and teaches online in Rhode Island School of Design’s Continuing Education Natural Science Certificate Program. Her artistic process and love of nature have been a topic for presentations at elementary schools, libraries, conferences and colleges. Carol enjoys co-teaching the workshop, “Seascapes and Landscapes”and being an Artist-In-Residence at the Shoals Marine Laboratory on Appledore Island, Maine where her love of the ocean and art come together through visually documenting her experiences and teaching.

Carol taught illustration at Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design and has shared her passion for illustrating at the hundreds of elementary schools, libraries, conferences, and colleges she has visited.

Jenn, thank you for sharing your book and journey with us. This is such a clever book. I love how the simple text help children learn about nature by using different lunch boxes to see what the eleven featured forest creatures eat. Time to eat. The little boy says, “Here is my red
lunch box. What have you
packed for me today?”

Each time the little boy opens a lunch box, he says, “No, thank you! I will
NOT eat that! This
is not my lunch box.
This lunch box belongs
to the . . .” Then the reader flips to the next page and discovers the animal who would love the food inside the box.

Carol’s Illustrations are exquisite. They make you want to reach out and touch Skunk’s fluffy tail. Run your fingers over the fur of the Moose and feel the ridges in his antlers. There is so much depth to every illustration that children will think they see the worms wiggle and the spiders moving across the eggs in the open lunch box. Along with each open box is lyrical text around the items inside, like Fuzzy flies, Busy bees, mischievous moles, whizzing wasps, Lurking larvae that will keep kids listening. This is a great way to get children to learn to read, when their is fun text and pictures to help them remember the words.

Loved the end with all the children holding their lunch boxes up while the forest creatures featured in the book are hiding in the forest. Children will have so much fun trying to find them. Good luck with the book.

Talk tomorrow,

Kathy