[Monday Reading] From Sidewalk Pantries to Market Stands: Food and Community in 2023/2024 Diverse Picturebooks

Myra here.

It’s Monday, What are You Reading is a meme hosted by Kellee and Ricki from Unleashing Readers (new host of Monday reading: Kathryn T at Book Date).

I have always mentioned repeatedly to friends and fellow bibliophiles that ‘home is where the books are.’ Hence, the theme #ReadYourWayHome2024 seems apt. Tapping into the complexities and nuances of my cultural realities, I have broken down this larger theme to places and spaces I consider home – being born and raised in the Philippines, and having lived in Singapore for 11 years, and now in the UAE for nearly 5 years – I have come up with the additional hashtags: #SoutheastAsianLit2024, #ArabLit2024, #MiddleEasternLit2024, #TranslatedLit2024, and #DecolonizeBookshelf2024.

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Pa, Me, And Our Sidewalk Pantry (Amazon)

Written by: Toni Buzzeo Illustrated by: Zara Gonzalez Hoang Published by: Harry N. Abrams (2023)
ISBN: 9781419749377 (ISBN10: 1419749374) Borrowed via Libby. Book photos taken by me.

I read this book a year ago and it made an impression on me. Since I am doing a food-themed kind of week, I revisited it and paired it with another outstanding book that just came out this year.

A young boy named Jelly Bean by his grandfather realized how food scarcity can be an issue to other families when his mother lost her job. Published in 2023 – as the pandemic was winding down – it is a book that would, no doubt, resonate with so many young people everywhere whose families had been hit hard by COVID-19. This boy, however, was thinking of other people in need – not just himself – which I found to be quite striking.

Initially, I thought that he would replace their family’s sidewalk library with the pantry – and was happy to see that he simply thought of adding the latter to the former – and all with a catchy phrase that is bound to attract the neighbors’ attention.

What made the book work for me even more is how Jelly Bean did not merely discard things he did not like to give away to people who are in need: he understood intuitively the true value of sacrifice and generosity. It is when we give away things that we treasure most ourselves that the act of generosity truly counts. I found the idea of “friendly foods” going together – like peanut butter and jelly or having chips and salsa together to be thoughtful. And as can be seen above, books can also be paired with food – but of course! As Jellybean’s grandfather always says:

Sometimes, you just need to switch things up!

The purposeful act of preparing the sidewalk pantry embodies a genuine spirit of community – especially when Jelly Bean and his grandfather knocked on their neighbors’ doors to solicit help and support for their sidewalk pantry – indicating the collective and communal nature of this enterprise. I even tried looking for Pa, Me, And Our Sidewalk Library that I may have missed – but this is a stand-alone book.

Teachers and bright-eyed parents would be happy to note that there is a brief Afterword that provides more information about Little Free Pantries – an initiative that is very much like Little Libraries, Big Heroes by Miranda Paul and John Parra (Amazon) that I featured in a conference presentation as can be seen here.

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The Last Stand (Amazon)

Written by Antwan Eady Illustrated by Jarrett and Jerome Pumphrey Published by Knopf Books for Young Readers (2024) ISBN: 9780593480571 (ISBN10: 0593480570) Borrowed via Libby. Book photos taken by me.

I am not unfamiliar with the Pumphrey brothers’ work – having done a 2-in-1 review of The Old Truck (Amazon) and The Old Boat (Amazon) here. This latest one that they illustrated written by Antwan Eady published this year, I suspect, would win all them awards next year.

The first page clearly establishes what The Last Stand signifies. Once again, I think of the pandemic as I read this picturebook with so many small businesses closing down and unable to survive due to the lockdown. However, reading the Author’s Note made me realize that this book is so much more than that.

I am particularly struck by how this young boy never misses any thing: he notices little details as he learns the value of hard work with his grandfather serving as his role model. He takes note of the black and wrinkled hands of his Papa, his careful movements – and how each one tells a story; he learns that special deliveries are essential to forge this sense of community among other folks who, for some reason or another, may be unable to travel and leave their homes. Hence, this isn’t just any ordinary business: it’s people looking out for each other, and the care that comes along with a kind of service that is often ignored or overlooked.

What made this book even more powerful, though, was the Afterword written by Antwan Eady – the pain that laces the cry for social justice rings bright and clear, and makes me want to pair this book as well with Tomatoes For Neela by Padma Lakshmi and Juana Martinez-Neal (Amazon) – see my review here. See here a part of Eady’s Afterword:

A little over a century ago, Black farmers made up fourteen percent of farmers in America. Today, that number is less than two percent. There are reasons for this loss. For years, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) discriminated against Black farmers, denying them loans or not giving them their fair share of assistance. In the late 1990s, Black farmers filed class-action lawsuits against the USDA. Almost two years later, the combined lawsuits were settled and became the largest civil rights settlement in history at that time. But for many farming families, the damage that had been done was beyond repair.

One sign that the picturebook has come of age – or has evolved through the years – is that themes such as these can now be brought to light in such an open way – demonstrating to readers – young and old, that yes, there is injustice in the world – and that yes, together we are able to reimagine a better world and work together to build the community we truly deserve.

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#ReadYourWayHome2024 Update: 18/19 out of target 100