ON THE TRAIL OF BREAD CRUMBS
Mother turns detective to find out who is stealing her son’s school lunches
It was not one of my finer parenting moments. Effective, yes; but fine, no.
Son One had been losing the handful of taco chips I’d been adding to his school lunch as a treat and it was starting to irritate me, so one day I liberally sprinkled the chips with cayenne pepper and told him that if they were, by some miracle, still in his lunch bag, he should avoid eating them. “Why?” he asked. “Never mind,” I said.
Sure enough, the chips were gone when he went to eat that day. But before the lunch hour was over, one of the teachers reported seeing a line of kids at the water fountain, frantically guzzling to put out the fire in their mouths.
Turns out the chips thief had shared his ill- gotten gains.
But no one ever raided my son’s lunch again.
Decades later, Montrealers André Marois and Patrick Doyon give us The Sandwich Thief — originally published as Le voleur de sandwichs, and winner last year of the Governor General’s Literary Award for illustration in French children’s literature — in which another mother steps in to protect her son’s school lunches.
This time, as the title to this graphic novel implies, the thief in question is stealing sandwiches — delicious, albeit somewhat unusual, sandwiches — from Marin’s lunch box. No soft, mushy white bread for his mom; she uses artisan loaves from a special bakery. And no Kraft mayonnaise. She makes her own, by beating together eggs, mustard and olive oil. In fact, it turns out to be the mayonnaise that lures the thief on an almost daily basis. ( Wednesday’s sandwich, made with tofu spread, giant shrimp, alfalfa and tomatoes, does not tempt the thief ’s palate.)
Monday’s sandwich — ham, cheddar and kale — is Marin’s favourite, and when it goes missing he suffers a rumbling stomach and wracks his brain, trying to imagine who might commit such a dastardly deed. He prepares a list of likely suspects, eliminating them one by one, but failing to find the culprit. On Thursday, when his egg- salad sandwich ( with mayo, red onions and grated Parmesan) goes missing, he finally tells his parents why he’s so hungry — and upset. Mom swings into action, using her chemistry set to concoct intensely ( and disgustingly) flavoured additions to her son’s Friday sandwich.
Marin, by then, has zeroed in on Mr. Geiger, the school principal ( a sloppy eater with suspicious- looking stains on his clothes), as the likely thief, but the cries that echo through the school halls just before lunch hour turn out to come from someone entirely different.
The mystery finally solved, Marin joins his friends in the cafeteria to enjoy the extra ( untainted) sandwich his mother provided.
It’s a safe bet that the sandwich thief, like that taco- chip purloiner decades ago, will not be raiding any other child’s lunch, having learned his lesson.
Also assured is that any child who has ever been victimized by a lunch thief will find comfort — and amusement — in this story.
The Sandwich Thief
By André Marois Illustrated by Patrick Doyon Translated by Taylor Norman Chronicle Books, 160 pages, $ 20.99 Ages 7 to 11