By Ben, 8 October 2018
“Hector, Terrence, and Dee have always wondered about their school lunch lady. What does she do when she isn’t dishing out the daily special? Where does she live? Does she have a lot of cats at home?” – Narrator.
When I was a child back in the days when dinosaurs ruled the earth, I always wondered about the lunch uncles and aunties at my school. And about the janitor, and the gardener, and of course, those mysterious and terrifying figures of wisdom and authority – the Teachers. So I simply had to read Lunch Lady, a comic book series that is bright sunshine in colour and, despite the cafeteria uniform- wearing, kitchen utensil-wielding, older-lady main character, equally appealing to little girls and little boys.
Don’t just take my word for it. See what 8 year old Ben thinks.
Princess Smartypants is beautiful, rich, fearless, clever, strong willed and living la vida loca.* She’s a Smug Unmarried, and wishes to remain so. But her Mother has other ideas. “Stop messing about with those animals and find yourself a husband,” commands Mother.
Sometimes, world events spur us to read books. There are books that can help us make sense of complicated or stressful situations, and books that will just make us feel better. This week, I needed to feel better, so I reached for The Paper Bag Princess. In this classic picture book by the legendary Canadian author, Robert Munsch (who shares my birthday, I just discovered), a strong female protagonist – despite all the terrible things that happen to her – keeps her wits about her and makes decisions about her life, and ultimately, her own happiness. 
Our thin paperback copy of My wobbly tooth must not ever NEVER fall out is battered and bruised, like the banana that Ben brought home from school the other day. Most of the pages have been cello-taped back together, the spine has rubbed off and the majority of the free stickers are on the underside of my mum’s coffee table in Malaysia.
Stories That Stay With Us 