Title Yum-yum bento box : fresh recipes for adorable lunches / by Crystal Watanabe and Maki Ogawa.

It goes without saying that the creations contained within this cookbook are cute. Incredibly, adorably cute. Anthropomorphic rice balls and faces made from egg and deli meat never looked so twee. This is a much more comprehensive book on bento than some others out there and gives a nice overview of tools to use, including some craft supplies (one-hole punchers, paper punches used for scrapbooking) and kitchen supplies you can repurpose (cookie cutters, muffin cups). These would be fun to make for a picnic or a special party, but unless I had endless time on my hands I could not make these daily for a passel of kids. (I mean, are you going to soak beets to make pink rice for ladybug onigiri, not to mention making flower-shaped carrots and seaweed grass with quail eggs...and then do it again tomorrow?) They also suggest making a "bento diary" and drawing your creations. Why not use a digital camera? Overall, this would be a once-in-a-while, special occasion endeavor for me (and I like to cook!) In the meantime I'll just enjoy the fun pictures! Itadakimasu!