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Books to Read When...It's Soup Season!

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Chili, chowder, and stew, oh my! (And pho, and borscht, and bisque, and pozole, and congee....) What soups do you like to eat when it's cold outside? 

Written by Denyse Waissbluth
Illustrated by Chelsea O'Byrne
Vancouver/Berkeley/London : Greystone Kids, 2025. Informational.

This is a perfect introduction to a world of diverse and fascinating soups. Bitesize entries explore the ingredients, culture, history, and traditions behind different soups from different places. Really interesting and informative, with adorable illustrations.


Written by Barbara Beery
Sanger, CA : Familius LLC, 2025. Informational. 181 pages.

This new cookbook is a great start to child-friendly French cooking. There are dozens of recipes here, sophisticated dishes presented simply. Choose from one of the six excellent soup recipes to make with your family (and maybe bake some French flatbread with Herbs de Provence to go with it!). 

By Marcia Brown
New York : Aladdin Books, 1986. Picture Book.

This folktale has been around for centuries and many different cultures have their own variation of it (Hey! Sort of like...soup!). Marcia Brown's version was originally published in 1947! Hungry soldiers trick greedy townsfolk into adding ingredients to their pot, which is empty except for water and a stone. Eventually, they make a soup and all enjoy it together. I love the lively illustrations, accented with vermilion red.

By Hyewon Yum
New York, NY : Norton Young Readers, an imprint of W. W. Norton & Company, 2025. Picture Book.

A Spoonful of the Sea lovingly explores the Korean tradition of eating seaweed soup. The dish is called miyeokguk and it is served both to mothers after giving birth and as a birthday dish in honor of one's mother. This tradition is intertwined with haenyeo, women who dive to harvest seaweed and shellfish.
Yum's story and illustrations gently connect women, their children, the natural world, and the food we eat.


Mama's Special Wonton SoupWong, Wai Mei, author.
Written by Wai Mei Wong
Illustrated by Xin Yue Zhu
Newbury, UK : Lantana Publishing Ltd., 2025. Picture Book.

A little girl in a Southern Chinese village heads to the market to buy ingredients for her mother's wonton soup. Along the way, her generous community of family and neighbors give her more and more things to carry home to Mama. This is a lovely take on the Stone Soup folktale, but no tricks are necessary in a village full of people who happily share with each other. The illustrations are sweetly rendered, showing beautiful ingredients and kind people hard at work. (And the endpapers are perfect.)
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