Read this to your children! Young and older. Not only is this a "light-hearted" way to start or continue to conversation on food-insecure persons, it also touches on empathy, problem solving, friendships, privilege, life struggles, and how it is endured, and that life insecurities can look like anyone, young or old, white or black or brown.

I was crying at the end. It is such a beautiful story, depicted in a way that children can understand, and avoiding triggering the more sensitive crowd. My newly 5 year old understood immediately what was happening and it made her even more engaged.

And how the author "breaks" up the struggle with regular life kid play is amazing. After closing this book the other night, my oldest requested to add it to our permanent collection, which we will be doing.

It's a very sweet book with cute pictures. It focuses on why sometimes it is OK to break a promise to help a friend.

I read it online to my 5-year-old grandson across the country in Massachusetts, and he stayed focused on it the whole time. I Had the book open on my computer, spike to him via Facetime, turning my screen around, and it worked very well.

This is a fantastic picture book to introduce and explain food insecurity to young children.

well written story about frienships and hunger

Alas, another book that brought tears to my eyes! Maddi's fridge is empty. Her friend Sofia swears not to tell. But this ties Sofia's hands so she tries to solve the problem herself by bringing food to Maddi. She finally realizes that Maddi needs more than she can provide and breaks her promise not to tell in order to help Maddi's family.

This book is on a tough subject. But it is told in such a tender manner that it keeps the story light. The friendship between the two girls is beautiful and when Sofia tells, Maddi is not mad because she knows her friend loves her. This book would be perfect for school aged children to learn about the topic of hunger as well as when it is okay to break a promise made to a friend such as what happened in this book. The author did an amazing job of keeping the tone upbeat in this book. I wish more books on difficult subjects were written in this tone. It makes for very teachable moments. Many kudos to this author.

Local (Washington State) author Lois Brandt has created an accessible and gentle story about friendship and the reality of children in need. This book will introduce young children to the idea of hunger in our society while at the same time offering them a practical, kid level way to deal with it. In the end this book is about the power of friendship. The cartoon pictures add to the story and its accessibility. Sounds like a scary topic but the author handles it beautifully. An excellent early introduction to hunger in our country.