Lunch Lady and the Cyborg Substitute

Bibliography:

Krosoczka, Jarrett. 2009. Lunch Lady and the Cyborg Substitute. Knopf Books for Young Readers. ISBN: 0375846830.

Plot Summary:

 Lunch lady by day? Superhero by night? Students are wondering about their school lunch lady. What does she do when she isn’t serving up lunch? Where does she live? Does she have animals? What they don’t know is that she doesn’t just serve up lunch she also serves up justice.

Critical Analysis:

I love this series of books because they are funny and interesting. The detail of her high-tech kitchen and tools, she can track down the cyborg and fight them with her fish stick nunchucks. The three students who get involved also grow within the story and stick up to bullies.

 I love the hilarious storyline along with the yellow highlighted pen cartoons. I feel this book is a great one to start a reluctant reader because it’s a simple read with an amazing story and great imagination. This graphic novel is not like others where there are numerous speech bubbles all over the pages this is an easy-to-interpret flow.

Review Awards and Excerpt(s):

• Cooperative Children’s Book Center Choices 
• IRA Children’s Choices
• Kid’s Indie Next List “Inspired Recommendations for Kids from Indie Booksellers”
• New York State Charlotte Award

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

Connections:

You can compare all the Lunch Lady books, and students can write their own comics.

You can also check out Jarrett J. Krosoczka site- he has comics to finish and other activities available for teachers to use. 

Students could also watch his Ted talks.