Does Your Family Eat With Your Hands? | Stay for Dinner Book Review

Does your family eat with your hands? Ours does, and so does Reshma’s family in Stay for Dinner! In this review, I talk about Stay for Dinner, written by Sandhya Parappukkaran and illustrated by Michelle Pereira, the same team behind The Boy Who Tried to Shrink His Name. Reshma is a Malayali-Australian girl who lives with her parents and her Ammamma (mother’s mother). Her family loves mixing rice and curry and eating with their hands. When she stays for dinner at her friends’ houses, she discovers that every family eats a little differently. But when her friends are invited to her house, she starts to worry about what they’ll think. My daughter loved the fun sound words in this book and kept repeating them long after we finished reading. It’s a lovely reminder for kids not to feel down about their own customs, and to respect other families’ customs too. I think children growing up in migrant families will especially connect with this story. The book won the 2024 Multicultural NSW Award at the NSW Premier’s Literary Awards and was a 2024 CBCA Notable Picture Book. 📚 Book details Title: Stay for Dinner Author: Sandhya Parappukkaran Illustrator: Michelle Pereira Publisher: Hardie Grant Children’s Publishing Ages: 4–8 ▶️ Watch our review of The Boy Who Tried to Shrink His Name:    • Why You Should NEVER Shrink Your Name! | T...   ⏱️ Chapters 0:00 Does your family eat with your hands? 0:10 About the book 0:30 Reshma’s Malayali-Australian family 1:30 Dinner at friends’ houses 2:10 Reshma’s big worry 2:51 The fun sound words kids love 4:10 The illustrations 4:30 Why it matters for migrant families 5:17 Our verdict 💬 Does your family eat with your hands? Tell me in the comments! If you enjoyed this review, please like and subscribe for more children’s book reviews. #StayForDinner #ChildrensBooks #PictureBookReview #KidsBooks #AustralianPictureBooks #DiverseBooks #MulticulturalBooks #ReadAloud #BookReview