Nothing educational or meaningful, but a terrific exuberance of what a lot of children spend a lot of time thinking about, wishing for. In my daydream, my restaurant has more exotic foods, not just mountains of the favorites, but then I'm not a six-year-old child. I believe kids would love looking for all their favorites in the illustrations, everyone would love the wordplay including the diner lingo, and smaller children might be surprised by the little twist at the end (though moms see it coming from the first page). ( )

Zak's Lunch by Margie Palatini is a picture book about a boy and his over active imagination. It's lunch time again and Zak's mother has made him a ham and cheese sandwich. He'd rather have something more exciting. His mother retorts that she's not running a restaurant.

It's the restaurant quip from Mom that sparks Zak's crazy imagination. Soon he's imagining that he's in a magical dinner where he can have whatever he wants in whatever amount. All sorts of fast food and deserts are flung around with carefree abandon.

But in the end Zak is brought back from his revere and is convinced to eat the ham and cheese. So after staring off in to space and going to his happy place, I guess, he comes to and Mom wins the lunch battle.

My problem with the book is that I completely feel for Zak. I hate ham and cheese. It's not something I'd ever want to eat of my own accord but there have been plenty of times when I've been in a situation where it was my only choice of food. These were times when I was traveling and the food had been prepared en masse.

But as a parent — even with picky eaters, I can't imagine making such a stink over a sandwich. I'm not suggesting that she bow to Zak's every whim, but a more sensible dialog between the two would have been nice. ( )

The only problem I have with this story is that a ham and cheese sandwich could never be too hammy or cheesy and mustard breath is not a bad thing. Other than that, this book is perfect. Margie Palatini writes truly fun pieces that any reader, child or otherwise, could truly relate to and enjoy. This is a great piece. It makes me imagine my perfect meal, which would include plenty of ham, cheese, and mustard I assure you. ( )