There are so many ways Stay for Dinner can be used to spark conversations in families, classrooms, and over readers’ own dinner tables. Conversations about being adventurous with food, about trusting friends and embracing ourselves and each other without judgment, about the warmth, generosity, delightful quirks and chaos of multi-generational families, and about the moments to treasure between and among family and friends.

And while food and multiculturalism have long been fetishised as the domain of the ‘exotic’ and ‘other’, Stay for Dinner stands out as a work that masterfully avoids any such tropes. Instead, Sandhya Parappukkaran and Michelle Pereira present a gorgeous food and cultural safari for children that is as much about appreciating and embracing the diverse ways families share a meal together, as it is a reminder that differences are mutually enriching when they are encountered without hierarchy or judgment but rather acceptance and respect. The result is a story that will have you grinning from the first page and ravenous by the last!