Customer Reviews

Stone Soup (Turtleback School & Library Binding Edition) (Easy-To-Read Folktale)

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Stone Soup by Ann McGovern and illustrated by Winslow Pinney Pels is the retelling of an old Grimm Brother's tale whose origin has probably been long lost. It is also known as Nail Soup in Scandinavia, and Axe Soup in parts of Europe. Some traditions, which is somewhat supported, place the origin of the story in Portugal. Originally the story consisted of a group of hungry solders returning from the war, who talked an entire town into providing them with an entire meal using the "stone soup method." The version of the story told here has two characters; a young and poor wondering youth, and a somewhat poor old woman who actually has plenty that he tries to talk out of a meal.

When the old lady refuses our young wondering man a meal, he of course starts with a rock he picked up from the road. After he adds the rock to a pot of boiling water, to make "stone soup" he has the little old lady hooked. He points out that the stone soup would be much enhanced with the addition of some onions. The little old lady of course has onions, so she adds them. This goes on and on like this with one ingredient after another being added at the coaxing of the young man and the curiosity of the old lady increasing as the story progresses. In the end, the young man gets a fine pot of stew, a full belly, and I suspect, after the little old lady thinks about it, she becomes much wiser.

The author has done a fine job in this version of the tale and the illustrations are top notch. The artist has used detailed water colors and has captured the poverty of the youth perfectly. The depictions of the clothing alone are works of art.

This is a great read-along book or one that is good for the child to read to themselves. Both test and illustrations are well coordinated.

Since this version of this story was first published in 1968 it has come under some criticism as some feel it teaches children to lie and deceitful. It also shows a very uncaring and unsharing little old lady, both not good traits. While I agree that the axe version may show and teach the advantages of cooperation better; that working together, all benefit, I also feel there are lessons to be learned from this version. First, children need to learn the facts that people do lie and lie all the time. Secondly, that they should questions the overall big picture and not take everything at face value and thirdly, when you want something from someone, don't tell them how desperately they need it, but rather create the impression that you are giving them an opportunity to be part of your success. I firmly believe that we can be, and often are, too sheltering and protective of our children; to the point of hurting them later in life.

I enjoyed this book. I use it all the time with children I read to and in fact, used an oral version of this tale to teach my children and grandchildren, much as I was by my grandfather years and years ago.

Note that there are other and many versions of this book out. I will be the first to admit that I have read better, but still think that this one will do in a pinch.

Don Blankenship
The Ozarks

Stone Soup is a classic story brought to life through the pictures by Winslow Pinney Pels. A young man, a pauper, spies a house that looks like plenty of food could be found there. The old woman who owns the house tells him to go away, she has no food in the house, no food in the garden. The young man asks her for a stone. "A stone, what do you want with a stone," she curiously asks the pauper. "Ah," says he, and he knows he HAS her. As the story unfolds, the young man has the woman adding more and more ingredients to the stone soup the young man is making. Completely duped, until possibly the very end, the old woman is the young man's accomplice in tricking herself into providing the pauper with a "feast for a king." And what will become of the stone, read the story, and find out! You'll enjoy it!

This is the BEST book I have ever read! I still enjoy reading this book even today. I especially love how the pieper gets the old woman to cook him a huge pot of soup, from a stone. Also she has no idea that she is making him a soup. She thinks he really did make soup from that stone. This is by far the greatest book I have ever read! If I had the choice I would rate this book six stars. This is still my favorite book to this date and it will continue to be forever! I would recommend this book to everyone.

I'm probably not the norm here in comparison to the other reviewers, but this is really a cute book. After reading the other reviews, I'll probably get the other version as well. However, that said, my mother purchased this book for me when I was six-years-old and I STILL have it. It is read almost nightly in our house to a toddler who thoroughly enjoys it. He particularly likes to point out what's wrong. For example, the little old lady tells the young man that she has nothing in her garden to feed him, nor anything in her house. My little one always says, "she's lying." And, he also picked up the fact that the young man in the story never says please or even thank you after this lady fixes him this wonderful soup. That's really something too and I even have to add it in while I'm reading it.

This is a cute book but I do suggest getting the other French classic version as well. This young man is somewhat of a shiftless fellow, not working, but just conning meals off of folks. Not too sure of the message there and it is repetitious which is good for young children. I do recommend it, however, since it is quite a cute story. Obviously, the illustrations in my 36-year-old book are quite different than this version so I will refrain from commenting on them.

Stone Soup is very fun reading. This is a great story because it keeps you interested from start to finish. This story tells of a young man who is off on a long walk and gets hungry. He goes to a little old lady's house and asks to be fed. After she turns him down he offers to make stone soup for them both. So the two boil a stone but soon add onions, carrots, beef bones, barley and many other things to make it taste better. The two then go on to share a very nice afternoon together before the young man heads out for another long walk. I really enjoyed the parts where the little old lady gathers all of the fancy things needed to make the soup. That's why I think that most other people should enjoy this book too.

In this version of stone soup they forgot the salt. It is about a boy who visits an old woman and somehow cons her into feeding him. The original stone soup teaches teamwork and neighborly love.

great book a must have fell in love with it as a child and now my sons will love this book too!

At our preschool, we love this version of Stone Soup. 1 teacher plays the old lady, 1 teacher plays the young boy and 1 teacher is the reader. The children love it when we act out this book....."Fancy that"! Next thing you know...the children are acting out the story on the playground.

This book was great. Thanks so much. The packaging was also great! Thank you thank you thank you ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !

My grandmother bought this book for me when I was little and from that day on, all I wanted for dinner was Stone Soup! LOL :) It's a little flimsier than I remember, but I guess every book seems huge when you're 7 or 8yrs old. Either way, I still enjoyed seeing it again and will make sure my kids get to read this book and help me make Stone Soup for supper!