Queen Rania Al Abdullah, who transformed all the world's "discrimination" into "difference."
The world has entered an era of globalization where national borders are collapsing.
As the number of foreign visitors to our country increases and international marriages become more common, meeting foreigners on the street is no longer unusual.
However, we still consider cultural 'differences' as 'wrong' and are unable to escape the perception that the culture of the society we belong to is superior.
This is not a problem limited to adults.
Today, children experience the social reality of multiculturalism firsthand at school and in society, and they mistake cultural differences for discrimination.

Queen Rania Al Abdullah of Jordan published "Swapping the Sandwich" to teach children around the world how to understand and respect different cultures.
This picture book, which received so much attention from readers that it made it to the bestseller list of the American daily newspaper New York Times, is being introduced to Korea for the first time through Treasure Chest.
Queen Rania, who has a passion for children's education as an Honorary Global Goodwill Ambassador for UNICEF's Children and Honorary Chair of the UN's Girls' Education Initiative, created the story based on her own experience of embracing cultural differences by exchanging sandwiches of different flavors and shapes with a friend.

“When we encounter something new, foreign, or strange, we often make hasty judgments.
But if we take the time to get to know each other, to understand each other's position, and to listen to different perspectives, we will learn valuable things about each other and about ourselves," said Queen Rania. As children read this picture book, they will learn how to accept differences and shed the shell of prejudice, how to gain confidence by correctly understanding the culture of the society they belong to, and how to see 'me' and 'you' not as separate concepts, but as 'we' who must live together in harmony.


Understanding different cultures starts with exchanging sandwiches.
Selma and Lily are best friends at school.
The two sit together every lunchtime and eat.
But the incident begins when each person brings a different type of sandwich.
Selma eats a hummus sandwich on thin, soft bread, while Lily eats a peanut butter and jam sandwich on thick, gooey bread.
They both secretly think each other's sandwiches look weird and disgusting.
Eventually, Lily tells Selma, “Your sandwich looks disgusting,” and Selma tells Lily, “Your sandwich looks disgusting too.”
And the smell is terrible!” and the relationship becomes strained.

To add insult to injury, a peanut butter vs. hummus battle breaks out at school.
As the restaurant quickly becomes a mess with food being thrown at each other from both sides, Selma and Lily are too embarrassed to raise their heads.
The next day, Lily musters up the courage to offer Selma a sandwich swap.
After tasting each other's sandwiches, the two realize that they had been holding onto their own wrong prejudices and reconcile.

"Swapping Sandwiches" realistically shows the confusion children experience when they first encounter the cultural differences between the Middle East and the West, represented by hummus sandwiches and peanut butter and jam sandwiches.
At the heart of this book is a concern about how narrow-minded and dangerous it is to judge something as right if it agrees with your thoughts and wrong if it differs from them.
However, it does not convey the clichéd lessons of ‘don’t discriminate against other cultures’ or ‘consider each other’s position.’
It simply cultivates the mind's eye that a full understanding of multiculturalism can only emerge when we realize that everyone wants their own culture to be respected and experience other cultures with a positive attitude.
Just like when Selma and Lily exchanged sandwiches, hugged each other, and exclaimed, “Wow, this is so good!”