Letters for Lunch! (Maree Coote, Melbournestyle)

File this one under ‘typography/lunchbox inspo/poetry/humour/veggies’—oh, sorry, you don’t have that section on your bookshelves? Well, make one, so you can put Maree Coote’s Letters for Lunch! there. This quirky, vibrant, occasionally frenetic opus is a lot of fun and will stand up to many re-readings. Using ‘Letter Art’ (a clever graphic language Coote has perfected through previous publications such as Dogography, published by Melbournestyle books in 2020), this playful book manipulates the letters of fruit and vegetable names to create bold visual portraits of the foods themselves, each accompanied by short (though dense), witty, first-person verses offering recipe ideas, fun facts, or just silly puns or jokes. The best verses are genuinely giggle-provoking, but some are more forced and don’t scan as easily. There’s a lot going on at all levels in this book—from the dizzying endpapers packed with quips and quotes alongside the fruits and vegetables rendered brightly in the book’s signature style, to the teachers’ notes covering everything from kitchen-based etymology to typesetting and design factoids. By the end of the book, readers of any age may feel a little overstimulated, but if you restrain yourself to small servings and maybe don’t try to devour the entire book in one go, you’ll enjoy the meal.

Books+Publishing reviewer: Anica Boulanger-Mashberg, an editor and writer, is a bookseller at The Hobart Bookshop. Books+Publishing is Australia’s number-one source of pre-publication book reviews.

Category: Reviews