THIS IS NOT MY LUNCHBOX!

What do animals eat? Find out!

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 clever and lovely introduction to animal diets.