Lily and Salma are best friends. They play together and stick together through thick and thin. But who would have ever thought that ordinary peanut butter or plain old hummus could come between them? Lily and Salma don’t quite understand each other’s tastes, but does that mean they can’t be friends? They understand far better than a lot of gown ups that these things hardly matter and that friendship is the most important thing of all.Her Majesty,Queen Rania’s children’s book is inspired by her own experience.
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- ISBN: 9781423124849
- Authors: Dipucchio, Kelly; Rania, Queen consort of Jordan
- Illustrator: Tusa, Tricia
- Published: 2010 , Hyperion Book CH
- Themes: Acceptance, Difference, fight, Friendship, tolerance
- Descriptors: Jordan, Middle East, Picture Book, Primary (ages 6-9), Realistic Fiction
- No. of pages: 32
The Sandwich Swap by Queen Rania and Kelly DiPucchio sent such a strong message of culture for a picture book. The story shows how cultures can be viewed differently just by the simple fact that we eat different things. For example, Salma loved hummus and pita sandwiches while Lily loved peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. These two best friends did absolutely everything together until they realized that they disagreed on their differences in lunch choices. Once this occurred, they started judging each other for something far more than food and in the cafeteria the cultures became divided. It wasn’t until the end of the story that the girls realized how silly they were being and how much they missed being friends, despite these minor differences. The last page shows how after a discussion with the principal, the girls brought their classmates together sharing all of the cultures different foods, and celebrating each culture.
Although the story itself shows how we must accept the differences in each others cultures, the Author’s Note by Queen Rania Al Abdullah really made an impact on my thoughts. Her majesty mentioned that she used to be just like Salma in the story. The lesson that she learned was that “it’s easy to jump to conclusions when we come across something new or foreign or strange. But if we take the time to get to know each other, stand in each others shoes, and listen to a different point of view, we learn something wonderful– about someone else and about ourselves”. This would be a great story to share with young students to show them that all cultures may be different but how exciting these differences can be once brought together.