Daddy’s Sandwich

Pip Jones

Laura Hughes

Faber & Faber, 2015

32pp., hbk., RRP $A22.99

9780571311828

 What do you put on a sandwich for daddy if you are going to make one with absolutely everything he loves?  Well you start with a slice of white bread that is crusty on the outside, a little bit of butter, some cheeses that’s a tiny bit stinky and some tomato –with the green bit pulled off.  And then you let your imagination go wild and add biscuits dunked in tea, his slippers, his uncrinkled newspaper, his phone, and, and , and… Finally a great big squirt of ketchup.  And to finish it off, you top it with the thing that he loves most of all!

 This is an hilarious story that will have young readers gasping with delight as Daddy’s sandwich gets more and more outrageous!  And they will be clamouring to tell you what they would put in a sandwich for their daddy.  The big, bright, bold illustrations underscore the magnificence of this sandwich and its construction and capture the mood perfectly.  Making a sandwich is a fantastic way to introduce young children to the concepts of instructions and sequencing and there is much scope for encouraging the children to talk about what they would put in their sandwich for their daddy and then creating a pictorial version of it – perhaps scouring magazines for the perfect illustrations. 

 But it’s also just a great read-aloud to share as Father’s Day draws near.