My Rice is Best

By Selina Brown, illustrated by Maxwell A. Oginni

Puffin Books UK, 2025.

As Selina Brown puts it, “culture lives in everyday moments, often in the kitchen, not the classroom.”

My Rice is Best is a story about food, pride and friendship across differences.

Shane loves his family’s rice recipe, inherited from his great-grandmother. It is the rice he brings to school in his packed lunch, but his friend Yinka has brought her own family’s rice, and she is certain hers is the best.

Soon, the two are arguing not only about whose rice tastes best, but about how good their rice makes them feel. Then their classmates join in, each championing a different family recipe.

Through rice and peas, jollof rice, fried rice, pilau, paella and risotto, the story moves from one child and culture to another. Just when the children think they have heard every possible version, another classmate introduces something unexpected: rice for breakfast!

As the story unfolds, Shane tries Yinka’s rice and discovers that it is not so bad after all, even if his own rice is still the best.

In some cultures, food is central to family life. Recipes can carry memory, affection and a sense of belonging, along with the conviction that the version we know from home is surely the best.

Each child arrives with something distinctive from their own family, and together those differences create the story. No rice needs to become the best for each one to remain special. Nor does one need to become like another.

Maxwell A. Oginni’s illustrations bring us directly into the children’s world of comparison, commotion and friendship. The children are so expressive and funny, giving the argument all the exaggerated seriousness such a question deserves.