Mean Soup - Softcover

Everitt, Betsy

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0152002278 ISBN 13: 9780152002275

Publisher: Clarion Books, 1995

Synopsis

It has been a bad day for Horace. A very bad day. He’s come home feeling mean. But his mother knows just what to do! “For the book Mean Soup, the recipe is as follows: (1) clever text spiced with one or two outrageous bits; (2) a grand message about getting out anger instead of locking it inside; and (3) exciting artwork as full of life as the story.”--Booklist

About this title

About the Author:

Betsy Everitt graduated from Art Center College of Design in Pasadena. Mean Soup was inspired by her own experiences on one very bad day in 1991.
 

From School Library Journal:

PreSchool-Grade 1-- An unsatisying blend of realism and fantasy that may confuse young children. Horace has had a bad day--including getting stepped on by a show-and-tell cow and riding home with Miss Pearl, who nearly kills three poodles on the way. He feels mean, so his sympathetic mother suggests that they make soup. She salts a pot of boiling water and then they take turns screaming into it and sticking their tongues out at it. Horace also bangs a spoon on the side of the pot while it boils on the stove (an unsafe practice) and, in a jarring departure from realism, he breathes ``his best dragon breath,'' at which point flames emerge from his mouth. At last Horace smiles. The text is appropriately simple and direct. The stylized gouache paintings are large and clear enough for group sharing. They are boldly colored, energetically composed, and sometimes offbeat and silly. The final scene depicts Horace and his mother ``stirring away the bad day,'' but their backs are to the readers, which unfortunately lessens the emotional impact. Sharmat's Attila the Angry (Holiday, 1985) or Simon's I Was So Mad! (Albert Whitman, 1974) are for slightly older children, focusing on a broader range of emotions. --Cynthia K. Richey, Mt. Lebanon Public Library, Pittsburgh, PA
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Clarion Books
• Publication date: 1995
• ISBN 10: 0152002278
• ISBN 13: 9780152002275
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 32