Lunch-Box Dream by Tony Abbott - OPTIONAL

Abbott, Tony  Lunch-Box Dream  Frances Foster Books,2011.  $16.99  173 pages.  Content:  Language PG (9 swears; 8 God); Violence: PG; Sexual Content: G.  

Bobby and his brother Ricky are going on a road trip with their grandmother and mother.  Their plan is to visit Civil War sights on their way to Atlanta to drop off their grandma and then take an airplane ride home, but on one of their stops they get lost, and Bobby’s mother panics and ruins the car tires.  They end up having to take a bus back home because they can’t afford the plane tickets.  Every other chapter is told from the view of a black family in the South who send their son to visit relatives, but their son goes missing and they all assume the worst.  When the black family gets on the bus with Bobby and his family they sing a mourning song, but when they family stops at their destination they are relived to find that their son is waiting for them on the platform and he isn’t lost.  

This story reflects on some of the history surrounding the Civil War and Jim Crow laws.  The main character is not likable and his story isn’t resolved, he doesn’t come of age at any point in the novel and he has a negative attitude were he criticizes himself constantly.  The kid is obsessed with the gross parts of battle, vomiting, body odor and mentions them in points of the story that are unexpected.  I thought the storyline was boring and had no direction, the characters were vague and the writing was choppy.  

MS-OPTIONAL.  Reviewer, C. Peterson.