What's for Lunch? A funny picture book about a hungry pigeon
What's for Lunch? is a funny picture book for ages 3 to 7 about a bored pigeon, tired of millets, who disguises itself as other birds to get tastier food. From Big Beetle Books, an independent picture book imprint from Bengaluru, written by Nandita Rao and illustrated by Suraj Chaudhari. The Hindi edition is Khane Mein Kya Hai?
The disguises are terrible. That is the engineering.
Why is a bad disguise funnier than a good one?
Watch a four-year-old being a tiger. The tail is a dupatta, the roar is enormous, and she is standing in full view of everyone, convinced.
So the obvious way to write a disguise story is to make the disguise good, and let the reveal be the surprise.
No. A surprise can only be enjoyed once, and this book is going to be read on a loop.
What survives the loop is the costume nobody falls for: a disguise so transparent that the reader is in on it from the first page, and the only person fooled is the one wearing it. A pigeon in a peacock outfit is still, visibly, a pigeon.
Children laugh hardest at the character who knows less than they do.
That is also why the escalation works. Sparrow, cuckoo, parrot, peacock, each more ambitious than the last, and by the third one a child is not waiting to find out what happens. She is waiting to be right.
What happens in the story
The pigeon is fed up. Every day it is millets and more millets, so it goes looking for better: oats, guava, chillies.
It works, for a while. Then all that pretending and all that overeating catch up with it, and the consequences are poop-based, and exactly as funny as that sounds to a four-year-old. Suraj Chaudhari's pigeon wears every feeling on its face, which is half the joke.
Bird sounds to read aloud
This is a book to perform rather than read. It is full of bird sounds, and the Hindi edition uses Hindi ones: गुटरगु, चीं चीं, कुहू कुहू, चटर चटर. The pigeon's gutargu is the one children take over first.
If your family reads in both languages, try English one night and Hindi the next. Same story, different noises. More on the pairs in Hindi and English picture books.
How to read it aloud
- Give the pigeon a voice. Bored and grumpy to begin with, sneaky once the costumes come out.
- Let your child do the bird sounds. Point at the bird and wait. The waiting is the technique.
- Pause before every page turn. Which bird next? Will this one work?
- Slow down near the end. The payoff needs the build.
- Do not rush the pictures. Every disguise has something to find in it.
A light way into the lunch question
A lot of family life is spent on the question in the title.
This book sets out to teach nothing about eating, and it is better for it. But a pigeon who complains about millets every single day is a low-pressure way into a conversation about your own table: what your child likes, what she is tired of, and what she would put on a costume to get instead. Keep it light. The pigeon does.
Key facts
- Title: What's for Lunch? (English), Khane Mein Kya Hai? (Hindi)
- Language: English and Hindi, same story
- Format: Paperback
- Ages: 3 to 7
- Writer: Nandita Rao
- Illustrator: Suraj Chaudhari
- Publisher: Big Beetle Books, Bengaluru
Frequently asked questions
What is What's for Lunch? about?
A bored pigeon, tired of millets, disguises itself as a sparrow, a cuckoo, a parrot and a peacock to sneak tastier food. All the pretending and overeating ends in funny, poop-based consequences.
What age is What's for Lunch? for?
Ages 3 to 7. Younger listeners enjoy the sounds and the repetition; older children enjoy predicting what goes wrong next.
Is there a Hindi version of What's for Lunch?
Yes. The Hindi edition is Khane Mein Kya Hai?, the same story with Hindi sound words.
Who illustrated What's for Lunch?
Suraj Chaudhari illustrated it. It is written by Nandita Rao.
Is What's for Lunch? a good read-aloud book?
It is built for reading aloud, with bird sounds to say out loud and a run of disguises children can guess at.
Still a pigeon. See What's for Lunch? and Khane Mein Kya Hai?.