The Sandwich Swap

Reader’s Review

This is a modern parable written by the queen of Jordan; a story of two girls that don’t understand each other’s food choice but eventually realize that it’s much better to share each other’s culture than fight. It’s written as a metaphor for global peace between different countries and traditions. While the story of the two girls is cute, and the illustrations will delight younger children, the message of global peace being achieved simply by trying each other’s foods and appreciating each other’s culture ignores deeper questions of oppression, economic inequalities and injustices that lay beneath the many global problems that exist in our world today.

To look out for

• Islamic Values: It is worth having a discussion with slightly older children about what it truly means to share and appreciate each other’s values, and why there is so much conflict between nations in the world today.
• Language: When the two girls get into a fight the whole school gets involved and the two sides start calling each other all sorts of rude names (parents may want to skip reading this part!), eventually resulting in a food fight.