This is the Lunch That Jesus Served

The miraculous feeding of five thousand people all started with a simple lunch—some fish and bread—that was offered to Jesus by a young boy. In This Is the Lunch That Jesus Served, written by Dani Daley Mackall and illustrated by Benrei Huang, young readers get to learn about how it all happened.

The writing mirrors the pattern for This is the House That Jack Built. It starts with a basket, and then, page by page and line by line, adds bread, fish, a dish, Jesus, the disciples, and the crowd.

Youngsters will enjoy both the illustrations and text. The pictures are very cute—bright, colorful, and not too busy. And the bouncing, repetitive, rhyming verses (and the way those verses build upon one another) practically invite the reader to join in. Parents will appreciate the inclusion of the complete NRSV Biblical account of the event following the story. This allows them to bring home the underlying message of the book: That God can do wonderful things with whatever we have to offer Him, no matter how small it seems.

What I Like: The author did a nice job structuring the verses so that the words flow in an almost sing-song beat. This makes it particularly fun to read aloud. I was also thrilled to see two pages giving the full tale from the Bible plus a “bonus” section, which provided fun fish facts, facts from the Bible about bread (and how Jesus called himself the Bread of Life), and ideas for children to offer service to God just like the boy in the story.

What I Dislike: Nothing.

Overall Rating: Very good

Age Appeal: 4-8 years

Publisher Info: Augsburg Books, 2006; ISBN: 0-8066-5118-0; Paperback $9.99

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Special info: Check out our reviews for other books by this author.