Veggie Soup

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.