MANDEVILLE, JAMAICA – April 27, 2026 – Jamaican food just got its own activity book!
The bestselling children’s picture book Jamaica in My Tummy by Jean Hawthorn-DaCosta now has a companion – Jamaica’s first activity book celebrating the island’s food culture. Blue Banyan Books recently launched the Jamaica In My Tummy Colouring and Activity Book to an excited and engaged audience at Top Loaf Cafe in Mandeville.
Jamaica in My Tummy, a favourite for many children, followed Brianna and her grandmother across the island, tasting everything from ackee and salt fish with chocolate tea in the morning to fragrant curried goat and spicy jerk pork by nightfall. The activity book dives deeper into Jamaican food culture.
The book is designed for leisure learning, providing hours of activity grounded in Jamaican language, landscape and culture. Puzzles, short stories, colouring pages, Jamaican proverbs and idioms, and food-themed word games and math activities bring it all to life. The book even includes a cross island trek that uses iconic landmarks such as Dunns River Falls, Devon House, Holland Bamboo and the Rio Grande. And there are, of course, mountains of Jamaican food. Patties, mangoes, ackee, sweet sop, curried goat, breadfruit and sweet potato pudding all make an appearance. The good stuff.
“Jamaica is a fun place to live, play and taste,” says Hawthorn-DaCosta, a three-time author. “Our children deserve to be seen and valued in the things they read. That’s why I wrote Jamaica In My Tummy, so they could see their food, their culture, their world reflected back at them. This activity book takes it further. It gives them a chance to really understand what’s theirs, who they are, and why that should be celebrated.”
“Playing while they learn is important for children,” adds Tanya Batson-Savage, publisher and co-creator of the book. “I think it’s critical for children to see books as an important part of their entertainment, not a form of punishment. And this book helps them have fun with the vibrant Jamaican culture – the language, the place and yes, the food.”
The activity is a welcome addition to the slate of Blue Banyan Books for readers across the Caribbean and beyond.
