What's for Lunch, Charley?: 10/26/24

What's for Lunch, Charley? by Margaret Hodges and Aliki (Illustrator) (1961) is about a boy who spends a lot of his time thinking about lunch. In the process of doing so he learns to appreciate the people around him, the kids in his class and the adults he knows.

Charley lives four blocks from school and on a good day he has plenty of time to get there. On a bad day he has to run there. On a really bad day he's so rushed that he forgets his lunch at home.

Lunchtime at school is eaten at one's desk. Charley happens to sit next to the new girl who brings elaborate lunches involving soup, fried chicken, and chocolate cake. She eats it elegantly and never offers to share, even on the day when Charley forgets his lunch at home. The other kids who have more typical lunches, do, but Charley doesn't want to deprive his classmates of their lunches.

In between home and school is the King Charles Hotel. Charley passes by and occasionally has a reason to go into the hotel. There a stores associated with it, places where Charley sometimes go to run an errand. It's here that he talks to a variety of adults and since he's polite and since his father is a regular patron of the hotel's restaurant, they're kind to Charley.

So it is on the day that Charley is without his lunch that he decides to leave school and eat in the hotel. I'm guessing this book was written at a time when it was still semi-normal for kids to go home for lunch. Going to a fancy restaurant, not so much, but the doorman calls in a favor for Charley.

It's here that Charley tries to replicate the new girl's lunch. He orders what he's seen her bring to school. When everything is easily produced and when he realizes he can't possibly eat everything, he realizes the girl's mother probably works at the hotel. She's eating left overs and that somehow lessens the glamor of her lunches somewhat.

Of course Charley is caught in the act of having lunch off campus. The confrontation isn't a big one. He's not grounded for life. Instead it's a weird intersection of a parent's life outside the home with the child's life outside the home.

Five stars

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