Mean Soup - Hardcover

Everitt, Betsy

3.78

356 ratings by Goodreads

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0152531467 ISBN 13: 9780152531461

Publisher: Harcourt Childrens Books, 1992

View all copies of this ISBN edition:

After a bad day, Horace comes home feeling mean and grumpy, but his mother has a creative cure that brings a smile to even the crankiest readers.

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.

About the Author:

BFA, Art Center College of Design, Pasadena, CA. Betsy Everitt's illustrations are done in gouache on watercolor paper. Professional work has included illustrating for magazines, books, advertising, packaging, clothing and web sites, etc... She lives and works in London, England.

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 title" may belong to another edition of this title.