Veggie Soup [Paperback]

Dorothy Donohue (Author)

Book Description

Fans of Stone Soup will want to join in when Miss Bun sets out to make her first vegetable soup. The pot gets filled with all sorts of odd ingredients as Bird, Cat, Toad, and Cow add their own favorite foods. But worms, fish, bugs, and straw make for a soup a bit too unusual for good eating, so Miss Bun starts again, this time creating enough vegetable soup to share with the local soup kitchen. The author's own cut-paper collage illustrations enhance the playfulness of the story.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Too many cooks spoil the veggie soup in this breezy picture book about food and friends. Miss Bun the rabbit is a prize- winning cook, having mastered all the recipes in her Great Nana's cookbook. But after so much time relying on Great Nana's careful methods, Miss Bun decides she'd like to wing it, whipping up "something tasty, something original, something all my own." She invites her pals over for a repast of veggie soup ? la Miss Bun. However, each guest feels compelled to supply the hostess with their own favorite soup ingredient, from wiggly worms to tangy tunas. Could her friends' suggestions kick the soup up a notch? Miss Bun, thinking her soup "blaaaa," adds the questionable items to the pot. The foul-tasting result convinces the bunny chef that Great Nana does indeed know best. Donohue's (Big and Little on the Farm) structure is built on repetition and cumulative-tale elements that will be familiar to many young readers, but her language could use a little spicing up. Her cut-paper collages are a smorgasbord of rumpled texture and bright color; shapes are layered and partially raised throughout, creating something of a 3-D effect. The soup recipe appears on the final page. Ages 4-8. (Sept.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From School Library Journal

PreSchool-Grade 2-In a spirited match of illustration and text, Donohue offers a fresh story about friendship, advice, and sharing. The artist's crisp, animated paper-collage creations feature familiar animals in an unfamiliar setting: a kitchen where a rabbit cooks up recipes from her favorite Great Nana's cookbook. Things begin to go awry when friends invited to her veggie-soup party stop by to improve the recipe with favorite ingredients: worms, hay, fish, bugs. The result is a classic case of "Too many cooks spoil the broth." The art dominates each double-page spread, with the oversized blue text printed in side panels. As the situation becomes more chaotic, the angles of the illustrations become wackier until the situation is resolved. Plot development drags a bit in the middle, and the ending (setting up a soup kitchen to share the bounty) may have to be explained to children, but, overall, this is a delightful book. Because the text is repetitive and predictable in part, and all of the art is large, it would be a good storytime selection. In addition, families and classrooms could extend the experience by making their own soup following Great Nana's recipe included at the end.
Lee Bock, Glenbrook Elementary School, Pulaski, WI
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 40 pages
• Publisher: Winslow Pr (November 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1588370208
• ISBN-13: 978-1588370204
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #9,756,865 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I was born and raised in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, the youngest in a family of 4 kids. As a child, I loved to watch "Captain Kangaroo" and remember him reading wonderful children's books with beautiful pictures, and I think it was then that I decided I wanted to create picture books. Dancing was my first passion, but I was never very coordinated or graceful, so I shifted my energies into my artwork.

After college, I taught art in the public schools in Wisconsin. Teaching and working with children directed me back to children's books and eventually to graduate school.

Returning to school, I received a Masters in Fine Arts from the Rhode Island School of Design. After graduate school, I was hired by Hallmark Greetings in Kansas City, where I illustrated hundreds of cards, many of them inspired by my lop-eared rabbit, Claire. I became known as the "Bunny Lady".

I now live In Boulder, Colorado and am married to my wonderful husband, James. In 2003, I went on a trip with my family to Guatemala to volunteer at an orphanage teaching art. This experience eventually led us on the path toward adopting our children, Julia and Joe. We finally became a family in June, 2005.

Dogs are also a big part of my life and work. I have always felt a special bond with dogs, and have been blessed to have shared my life with so many of them down through the years. I volunteer as a dog walker at the Boulder Humane Society, and some of the truly special ones have wound up coming home with me. They also tend to end up in my books!

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very fun book -Bonus, if you're a veg*n parent!!, May 18, 2001

By 

Karen Hunley (New York, NY United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Veggie Soup (Hardcover)

Veggie Soup is a great book - it's true that the prose is not Dr. Suess, but it's a very entertaining read. And considering the myriad of badly written children's books out there, it is my opinion that (for literary's sake) this book exceeds the less-than-stellar editorial reviews above. Miss Bun starts to make a soup (her grandmother's veggie soup recipe) for an impending dinner party comprised of various animal guests. Her guests arrive one by one and bring their own *interesting* contributions to her soup. She tries to accomodate everyone and the soup ends up being horrible. She re-makes the soup, this time following her grandmother's recipe without any additions. Everyone agrees that the soup is delicious. The middle of the story is repetitive with only the animal and extra ingredient changing (which works well in this age range, in my opinion). Your child will delight in saying "Eww!! The Crow wants to add that??!!" And, if you haven't already guessed, this is a gem for vegetarian parents. The recipe that Miss Bunn is cooking is included at the end so that you can make it with your child. And, for those of you looking for the moral? Well, I suppose it could be "You can't always please everyone" (and honor your grandmother's soup recipe at the same time) You could very easily find yourself having this discussion: "Well, what should've Miss Bunn done?" "Stay true to herself and made the soup as she wanted to and asked her guests to bring their contributions as a separate featured dish?"...or perhaps another solution? The cut-out illustrations are also delightful and unique. You won't be disappointed with this book.