Spider Sandwiches by Claire Freedman

Ill. by Sue Hendra. Bloomsbury, 2015. ISBN 9781408852583
(Age: 2+) Recommended. Board book. Max is a little monster with an appetite for strange and yucky things - he loves beetle biscuits, glug slug milkshake, toenail scrambled eggs and many, many more yucky things! The reader is taken through his day as he munches gross food for breakfast, lunch (scrummy lice rice) and dinner as well as the food he eats on a picnic (pickled worms and squashed fly jam), what he finds in his recipe book and at the beach. But his favourite food of all is spider sandwiches. And the reader has to make a guess to see just what gross thing he will not eat for tea.
This is a very funny and engaging rhyming story that will have both children and adults laughing out loud at the types of food that Max eats. The reader would also have lots of fun making up foods of their own when they have finished reading or listening to the story. Spider sandwiches is also sure to be a winner read out loud and newly independent readers would enjoy working out the story, helped along by the alliteration and rhyming word endings.
The illustrations by Sue Hendra add to the appeal of the story. The bright colours of many objects and Max who is portrayed as very green, stand out against a black background. There are often funny little labels on food packages like Go Rat on some rat poison and grubs coming out of tomatoes that will entice the reader to look more closely at the drawings.
Max is not a scary little monster; he has a big grin on his face much of the time, especially as he consumes his weird diet and young readers will certainly delight in his yucky ways.
Pat Pledger