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Lunch-Box Dream (2011)

by Tony Abbott(Favorite Author)

2.66 of 5 Votes: 1

ISBN

0374346739 (ISBN13: 9780374346737)

languge

English

genre

Historical Fiction

publisher

Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)

review 1: Tony Abbott manages to weave several plot lines and two historical tales in this wonderful novel. It is 1959 and a white family from Ohio sets off on a trip to Florida. One of the two brothers is a Civil War enthusiast so the family plans visits to battlefields on the way. The black family's trip involves the young son going to Ohio from Atlanta to visit relatives "in the country." How the journeys become interwoven is the result of the segregated/Jim Crow policies, as well as several misunderstandings.The author uses an interesting technique of switching narrators. This book would make an excellent introduction to or reinforcement of point of view lessons. The narrator we learn the most about is Bobby, the younger brother of the white Ohio family. He is a dynamic, flawed ... morecharacter and we witness how the trip changes him. Character traits is another fiction element that can be studied deeply in this novel. Lunchbox Dreams is an easy read for most upper elementary/early middle school students. It would be a great novel to correlate with history lessons on the Civil War or the Civil Rights movement. The book is so richly written that many reading targets can be examined if this is a class read. Compare and contrast, as well as cause and effect are two that come to mind.
review 2: Bobby and his family take a trip south to see the Civil War battlefields. Jacob is spending the summer with his aunt and uncle. This book is told from various narrators perspectives and it makes for a very disjointed telling. It is supposed to highlight Jim Crow laws in the South during the 1950s and it does a bit, but it isn't a very effective story. Bobby is obsessed with death and "chocolate" people. His mom actually wrecks her car to get away from a couple of African Americans (who aren't doing anything to harm her). It does highlight the irrational fear whites had for blacks at that time. Jacob and his family are black and their story is told from many members of their family's perspective. It is a very disjointed telling of their experiences living under Jim Crow and being treated as second class. Bobby and Jacob's stories finally come together at the very end, but it is kind of forced and really doesn't mesh; overall it is pretty poorly done. This book is supposed to be a testament on civil rights but it really doesn't work. There are many other books out that do a really good job portraying live during the 1950s and 1960s...this isn't one of them. less

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