The Real Story of Stone Soup Hardcover – Picture Book, January 18, 2007

I use folk tales with my 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade English Language Learners. One of our projects is to read all the versions of STONE SOUP to examine the perspectives of the characters and the message(s) of the various tales. My students always love Pete Seeger's retelling of the tale: Some Friends to Feed (with its CD of Pete's own retelling and a song to sing about Friends to Feed.) They love the tale for Pete's voice, his song, and because the townspeople are hungry...but they are NOT STINGY. This is the best version for the youngest children, too. The version my students always love the best, however, is The "Real" Story of Stone Soup by Ying Chang Compestine. It is a sophisticated story filled with irony and intellectually the most challenging of all versions. It is also, by far, the funniest. Homeschooling mom has problems with the bad language used by the first person narrator. Her problem, I think, might have more to do with the age of her children: it is not really intended to be comprehensible by very young children. The world experience, the subtlety of human relationships, and the complexity of literary device makes it the most challenging and the most fun of all Stone Soups, for age 9 and up (to and including adults). I had to write this review because Amazon's one-star ranking is unfair to the book and might dissuade teachers and older students from experiencing a fine book offering a rigorous academic experience. Go for it! (Especially if your students are Chinese, as mine are. It's a joy!)

A delightful variation on an old classic useful for compare/contrast, for interpersonal relationships, for justice issues, points of view, bullying, or just a fun story.

I teach pre-k and was initially reticent to purchase this book based on the other reviews about the use of the word "stupid".Though I am a fan of stone soup and all of its versions I couldn't resist and very glad that I didn't. While the narrator refers to his help as stupid, it was a great lesson for the children to realize that it is actually the narrator who is a bit daft. Plus, it opened up discussion about name calling. I thing it is a delightful, fun and visually appealing book and I am very happy I added it to my personal library.

This story deals with unspoken trickery which is cleverly shown through the eyes of the illustrator.

Fun story. Interesting version of this common world folk tale.

Luv the story. Luv the illustrations.

Some old folktales can be found in varying forms around the world. Stone Soup is one of those folktales that has been retold in many ways and many places. This particular version takes place in China, with an amusing contraposition between the story told by the narrator and the story told by the pictures. The narrator is a fisherman who says he works constantly. But the pictures show the fisherman asleep while his boys (the ones he calls lazy!) labor all day, hauling in heavy nets of fish. The western versions of Stone Soup have other people contributing ingredients to the soup, but in this version, the boys add all the ingredients, and fool the fisherman into thinking that he himself made the soup with stones.Reading this particular book aloud would be incomplete without examining the pictures and discovering the rest of the story. Preschoolers may not get the humor of the contrast between the words and pictures without someone pointing it out. Placing the story in China gives a different flavor to the soup as well as to the story. Good for a classroom unit on folklore.Stephane Jorisch's delightful pen-and-ink, gouache, and watercolor illustrations add amusing and important information to the story. Ages 5-12.

This is an old stereotyped book with words of stupid and lazy throughout. I bought it used, the indside the inside was stamped: "withdrawn from the library shelf" Well, Duh no wonder!!!! I read it to my 4-5 year old class, just to see their reaction, and they were just as troubled by the angry, disrespectful language. You don't need to be brutish and disrespectful in order to make a point. This book is terrible, I won't even give my copy away, I'd be too embarrassed to be a previous owner.