The following article reveals a lot of details about the plot.
When I used to teach first grade one of my favorite books to read to my class was Stone Soup written by Marcia Brown. To this day, 15 years later, it is still one of my favorite books. The only difference know is that I read it to my ESL (English as a Second Language) students who are in middle school They seem to love it as much as my first graders did.
Stone Soup was first published in 1947 and it is based on an old French Tale. It is an award-winning book. It won the famous Caldecott Medal of Honor. Here is a summary of the book.
Three soldiers were coming home from the war. They didn’t have any food to eat and they hadn’t eaten for three days. They were starving and also exhausted. They were in search of some food and a warm bed. While they were walking home, they came across a small village. They thought that maybe they could get something to eat and sleep there for the night. The problem was that the peasants in this small village heard the soldiers coming and didn’t want to share their food with them. They thought the soldiers would eat all of their food. The peasants ended up hiding all of their meat, milk, carrots, cabbage, barley, and potatoes.
When the soldiers asked for if they could spare some food, each household lied and and gave them a reason as to why they had no food to offer them. One excuse was that they had to feed a sick father, one excuse was that they had already given all their food to the soldiers who had previously come looking for food, another excuse was that it was a poor harvest that year, etc… When the soldiers asked if they had a warm bed to spare, that too the peasants all came up with excuses for. The soldiers had to think of a plan in order to get the peasant of this village to give them food and shelter for the night.
The soldiers came up with a great idea. They asked the peasants to bring out the biggest pot they can find and they would teach them how to make stone soup. This soup was special because they had made it for the King. Oh, the peasants got so excited they ran and got the biggest pot they could find. The soldiers first asked for water. The peasants started filling the pot with water. Next, they asked for three round stones. Then they asked for salt and pepper, followed by carrots, cabbage, beef, potatoes, beef, barley, and a cup of milk. The peasants all ran to their houses and under all of the blankets covering their hidden food, they came running back with everything the soldiers asked for. If this soup was good enough for the King to eat than the peasants wanted it too. They couldn’t believe they were part of making this magical soup all from stones.
After the soup was finished, they were ready to eat. The peasants set a beautiful table and all of the village plus the three soldiers sat down for a wonderful feast. They ate, sang, and danced all night until it was time to turn in. The peasants told the soldiers since they made this wonderful magical soup from stones; they should sleep in the best beds the village had to offer. One soldier slept in the mayor’s house, one the baker’s house, and one the priest’s house. The soldiers left the next day and the villagers couldn’t thank them enough for teaching them how to make this magical stone soup. They said they would never go hungry again.
This book is a wonderful teaching tool on how to share. It also teaches you to be creative and use your imagination. It has great pictures to go with the text. It is an easy read for any youngster. I will soon be reading this book to my son who is now two and a half. He will be too young to understand it now but he can still look at the illustrations that go along with the story. I love this book.
One more thing, I remember as a student myself in elementary school, one of my closest friends won the storytelling contest with this story, Stone Soup. It is such an easy story to remember with a great lesson taught throughout the book.
