Isabel and the Lunch Box Bully
by Simone Field
Having moved across the country with her family, the first day at her new school brings expected—and unexpected—challenges for Isabel. Not only does she need to find a way to make new friends, but she is also confronted by the class bully and his demands for the sweet treats in the lunch boxes of his classmates. And so the story begins . . .
As well as being an award-winning writer, author Simone Field is a Year 3 teacher at Victoria Park Christian School in Perth, Western Australia. She brings her classroom experience, her faith and her love of stories to Isabel and the Lunch Box Bully, which we hope will be the first of a series of books featuring the characters in this story and the values of the Bible applied in real-world settings.
Isabel and the Lunch Box Bully is written for kids aged 6 to 10, but with discussions questions for each chapter in the back of the book, it is also a resource for family worship, classroom discussions and children’s ministry in local churches. In this tightly narrated story, Isabel encounters a number of schoolyard challenges and the story models family conversations and faith as resources for overcoming them, sometimes in surprising ways.
While Isabel and the Lunch Box Bully is an affirmation of biblical values, it is also an introduction to emotional intelligence, gracious problem-solving and looking beneath the surface of other people’s appearances or actions. It is an easy-reading story that acts as an entry point into deeper and more difficult issues in a setting that feels like the classrooms in which its readers spend much of their time.
So get a copy of Isabel and the Lunch Box Bully for a young reader you are connected with or for the kids at your church. If they are a little older, they might read it for themselves, but also read it yourself to make the most of the opportunities for questions and conversations that will follow their reading.
Isabel and the Lunch Box Bully is available now in Adventist bookshops in Australia and New Zealand, or online.
Nathan Brown is a book editor at Signs Publishing
