In Banana Express: The Big Journey Behind One Small Delivery, Korean picture-book maker Jung Jinho (Look Up!), two-time winner of the Bologna Ragazzi Award, cleverly illuminates the logistics necessary to enable a quick breakfast for his protagonist. Aerin Park (Late Today translator) offers an enthusiastic translation.
Even before the book's title page, Minjoo orders bananas for early-morning delivery tomorrow. The title page follows, showing several boxes being loaded into a truck. "The bananas need to arrive early, so a delivery truck heads out before sunrise," initiating the process of getting Minjoo fed on time. With the sun still sleeping, the driver must find a gas station open at 4 a.m. Employees with jobs starting predawn catch even earlier subways, which means the tracks require repairs through the night. Once finished, those hungry workers need breakfast, sending restaurant owners shopping, prepping, and cooking before sunrise, necessitating food and vehicles--as well as power. Dad works all night to keep the electrical plant going, leaving Mom to do the early drop-off at the daycare center where Minjoo works. Hence Minjoo's early, quick breakfast.
Jung creates invitingly simple black-and-white line drawings with yellow highlights to complement his easy, step-by-step narrative. Humor is included: $6.99 per pound for U.S. meat, $55 per pound for Korean. An author's note recalls Jung first noticing his own pre-daybreak suppliers, "people I had often taken for granted. This book was put together from the stories of those unseen hands." Jung warmly reminds readers--factory assemblers and engineers, fishermen and suppliers, drivers and deliverers, and parents and caregivers alike--that "we are all connected." --Terry Hong