Stone Soup

Stone Soup 

Traditional Swedish tale retold by the Troll Associates 

Illustrator: Diane Paterson 

Grade Level: 2-4

Genre: Traditional Literature
Awards: none (for this edition)

Summary: Three hungry soldiers approach a town in hopes to receive some food.  As the townspeople see them approaching, the quickly hide all of their food.  The soldiers go door to door asking for food and a place to stay.  All of the townspeople turn them away saying they have too few bed and too little food to feed themselves.  One of the soldiers gets a brilliant idea.  He asks to borrow a large cooking pot to make stone soup.  Intrigued, the townspeople provide him the pot.  The soldiers slowly mention how the stone soup would be better with one more ingredient.  By the end of the story, the soldiers have a boiling pot of delicious soup complete with salt, pepper, carrots, onion, celery, potatoes, meat, wheat, and cream.  The townspeople are so impressed by their stone soup that they throw a huge feast.  They praise the soldiers for their amazing stone soup and end up filling their hungry bellies and giving them places to stay.

Evaluation:  Overall, I loved this story.  I would use this book in my classroom because I think it is a clever story.  I think middle school students would enjoy hearing this story even if they have already heard the story.

The readability is suitable for second through fourth grade.  I think the material in the story is also appropriate for those grade levels as well.

I could use this story as a writing prompt.  I could have the students share from other books they have read how a character outwitted another character.