Stone Soup

"Wait. You mean she didn't chop them?" asked a second grader this morning. Generally, there are no interruptions from the story steps while I am reading. This young listener (whose incredulity shows his background in making soup) could not fathom how the woman could put whole carrots (including the tops) in the large pot of simmering water in Jon J. Muth's retelling of Stone Soup. Next a farmer brings five whole onions and adds them. The children in front of me looked at each other in disbelief. The addition of unchopped ingredients continues with cabbages, mung beans, yams, and ginger root.

The three monks approached the village at the foot of the mountain, wanting to bring happiness to villagers who clearly had only themselves in mind, and making stone soup in the village center brought the people together for a soup banquet.

Readers loved Muth's watercolor illustrations (and later compared them to the Caldecott Honor Book of the same title by Marcia Brown), especially the page when the heads of the villagers peer over the edge of the cooking pot to view the soup. "Hey, that means we would be in the soup pot to see them!" one told me.

I finished by reading the author's note about various versions and variations of the story over time and his thoughts about this retelling set in China. When I read about the three monks (Hok, Lok, and Siew) representing health, wealth, and prosperity, a Chinese student chimed in about knowing that. All these connections and observations simmer in their thoughts and mine.