Jennifer Brown, How Lunchbox Jones Saved Me From Robots, Traitors and Missy the Cruel, Bloomsbury Australia, 1 August 2017, 256pp., $9.99 (pbk), ISBN: 9781681194417
Luke’s school always loses. It’s sort of their thing. The school has a trophy case, and the only thing in it is a coffee mug that says “World’s Greatest Secretary” … Although at some point, someone crossed out “Greatest” and wrote “Pretty Good” instead.
There’s a vague hope that the new robotics club might stand a chance of winning a robotics championship that’s coming up, and now Mr Terry is putting the pressure on Luke to join. But Luke’s not interested – he’d much rather be playing Alien Onslaught online, and the team is somewhere between a joke and Luke’s worst nightmare. There’s Mikayla, who can do just about anything with her feet. There are the two Jacobs, who claim that they’re completely different. There’s Stuart, who really, REALLY likes sunflower seeds. There’s Lunchbox Jones, who may or may not have a rabid wolverine in the lunchbox he carries everywhere. And then there’s Missy the Cruel. Luke’s greatest nemesis. And none of them have the faintest idea how to build or program a robot. Yet somehow, Luke finds himself roped in, and even, to his surprise caught up in the challenge of getting a robot ready to compete.
There are more surprises in store as Luke comes to learn a little more about his team mates and, one of my favourite moments in the book, when Luke realises that he and the terrifying Lunchbox are actually friends. One of the central themes of How Lunchbox Jones Saved Me is that of seeing past the surface of the people around you, and realising that everyone has their own stories and challenges to face.
The other focus of the story is encapsulated in another lovely and funny moment, when Luke gives a stirring speech to try and rally the team and convince them that they are not inevitably losers. It doesn’t quite go to plan, but there is a beautiful sense of victory in the end, all the more so because they didn’t actually win the competition. I won’t spoil the ending by explaining what happens, but it does emphasise, without belabouring the point, that their biggest victory was in coming together to try and achieve something.
The sense of humour in the story will engage the reader, and I would recommend How Lunchbox Jones Saved Me as an excellent next step for readers aged nine to twelve who have enjoyed books like James Patterson’s Middle School series and are looking for something a bit more. Laughs and weirdos and robots on the rampage… what’s not to like??
Reviewed by Emily Clarke
