Lunch Lady and the Cyborg Substitute: Lunch Lady #1 [Paperback]

Jarrett J. Krosoczka (Author)

Book Description

Release date: July 28, 2009 | Age Range: 8 and up | Series: Lunch Lady | Lexile Measure: 240L (What's this?)

Serving justice . . . and lunch!

Hector, Terrence, and Dee have always wondered about their school lunch lady. What does she do when she isn’t dishing out the daily special? Where does she live? Does she have a lot of cats at home? Little do they know, Lunch Lady doesn’t just serve sloppy joes—she serves justice! Whatever danger lies ahead, it’s no match for LUNCH LADY!

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

This tongue-in-cheek superheroine graphic novel will hit the spot for chapter-book readers. Lunch Lady and Betty, her assistant in both the cafeteria and her role of wrong-­righting supersleuth, investigate the strange case of an absent teacher, his creepy substitute, and a plan to grab the Teacher of the Year Award by truly foul means. Three little kids join in the action as Lunch Lady, equipped with a variety of high-tech kitchen gadgets like a spatu-copter and a lunch-tray laptop, tracks a cleverly disguised robot to his maker’s lab, where a whole army of cyborgs require kicking, stomping, and the wielding of fish-stick nunchucks. Yellow-highlighted pen-and-ink cartoons are as energetic and smile-provoking as Lunch Lady’s epithets of “Cauliflower!” and Betty’s ultimate weapon, the hairnet. There is a nice twist in the surprise ending, and the kids’ ability to stand up to the school bully shows off their newfound confidence in a credible manner. Little details invite and reward repeat readings with visual as well as verbal punning. Grades 2-4. --Francisca Goldsmith

About the Author

Jarrett J. Krosoczka is the author-illustrator of Punk Farm, Punk Farm on Tour, Max for President, and Baghead. He lives in Northampton, Massachusetts.

Product Details

• Age Range: 8 and up
  
• Paperback: 96 pages
• Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers (July 28, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0375846832
• ISBN-13: 978-0375846830
• Product Dimensions: 5.6 x 0.4 x 7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #8,766 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #74 in Books > Children's Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Comics & Graphic Novels

More About the Author

Jarrett J. Krosoczka has been passionate about storytelling through words and pictures since he was a kid. He began his professional career by illustrating educational readers for a national publisher while still an undergraduate at Rhode Island School of Design. Then, just six months after graduation, Jarrett received his first contract for a trade book that he authored. Knopf Books for Young Readers published Good Night, Monkey Boy on June 12, 2001 and Jarrett hasn't stopped or slowed down since. He currently has authored and illustrated eighteen published books--ten picture books and eight graphic novels. His Lunch Lady series has twice won a Children's Choice Book Award, in the Third to Fourth Grade Book of the Year category, and was nominated for a Will Eisner Comic Industry Award. In the summer of 2013, Jarrett will have his chapter book debut with the publication of Platypus Police Squad: The Frog Who Croaked. His Punk Farm and Lunch Lady series are both currently in development as feature films. While Jarrett awaits seeing his work adapted for the silver screen, he can be heard on The Book Report with JJK, his new radio segment on Sirius XM's Kids Place Live. Jarrett is happily living out his childhood dream in Northampton, Massachusetts, where he resides with his wife and daughters and their pug, Ralph Macchio.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Enthralls reluctant and dyslexic readers July 14, 2010

By Jaylia3 TOP 1000 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

As a reading tutor I am always looking for high interest books for my students with dyslexia. This book is perfect--it's funny and has a lot of lively pictures of the cafeteria Lunch Lady saving the day, plus the words used are a good mix of mainly easy and with some challenging ones thrown in too. I have a very smart eleven year old student who can only read at the first or early second grade level and he loves this book. It takes him a long time, but not only can he read almost all of it himself, I have to take the book out of his hands at the end of our session because he is completely engrossed.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars When Fishsticks Are Lethal Weapons... August 14, 2009

By K. Coombs VINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback

Obviously, the very best thing about this series is that Krosoczka chose a lunch lady for his undercover superhero. That made me laugh even before I discovered related details such as weaponry. In a brief scene before the title page (comparable to the scene before the opening credits roll in a movie), we see two bank robbers being stopped by a heroic figure on a motorcycle that has a sloppy joe button. Yep, it's hard to get away when your van is sliding around on a wave of sloppy joe filling.

The child characters in the book are a trio of average kids: Hector, Terrence, and Dee. When they are bothered by the school bully, Milmoe, a new substitute teacher saves the day--but there's something very strange about the sub, and soon Lunch Lady is trying to figure out just what he's up to. She is assisted by another lunch lady named Betty, who is like James Bond's gadget guy, Q.

The kitchen humor continues with a hidden lab behind a fridge and gadgets made out of things like spatulas, not to mention weapons formed from fish sticks. One of my favorite pages is a view of the spy screens in Lunch Lady's lab, which show what the teachers are doing. For instance, we learn that "Mr. Johnson is reciting poetry" to his class. Of course, the poem he is reciting begins, "Beans, beans, good for your heart..." before trailing off to be completed by amused readers.

Considering the title, you will not be shocked to discover that the substitute turns out to be a robot. What's fun to follow is how Lunch Lady figures this out and what she does about it. Meanwhile, our intrepid trio of kids have begun to spy on her. This, of course, allows them to participate in the obligatory climactic fight scene.

Lunch Lady herself is a delightful creation. Her cuss words in tense moments are vegetables: "Sweet potato!" and "Cauliflower!" When she tails the villain, she says, "I'm on him like cheese on macaroni!" L.L. is brave and knows some great fight moves, but she is also dedicated to providing school meals--a satisfyingly surreal combination.

Like the Babymouse books, Lunch Lady and the Cyborg Substitute has an inherent sweetness. The humor is goofy and lovable, the trio of children are ordinary enough to represent Everyreader, and the fight scenes are tongue in cheek. I'm very happy to see another graphic novel series served up in the children's book cafeteria. There's no mystery meat here: second and third graders are going to eat these up!

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars No Mere Librarian! August 4, 2009

By Tim Lasiuta

Format:Paperback

Move over Batman. Move over Phantom. This hero lives a little closer to our kids' reality. Enter, the Lunch Lady, cook to the hungry, nutritional guardian for the addicted, and protector of Thompson Brook School!

What do you do when a substitute seems out of the ordinary, seems too eager,and too perfect? Homework from a sub alerts the kids to a situation gone amiss, and once Lunch Lady monitors everyone else, a disturbing pattern arises! Is Teacher of the Year worth that much? How does he get the $ on a teachers salary to build so many robots?

Jarrett J Krosoczka has created a marvelous book that breaks the convention that the cafeteria cook is old and crotchety. He packs this hero with a boiler room, kitchen weapons, and an assistant with an imagination that Mr Popeil never had.

I loved this book and highly recommend it to all ages.

Tim Lasiuta