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93rd out of 2,254 books
—
3,515 voters
Stone Soup
by
Jon J. Muth
Award-winning artist Jon J Muth retells the favorite tale of a selfish community who is tricked into creating a delicious soup from stones. Set in China in Muth's hauntingly beautiful watercolors.
Three strangers, hungry and tired, pass through a war-torn village. Embittered and suspicious from the war, the people hide their food and close their windows tight. That is, unti...more
Three strangers, hungry and tired, pass through a war-torn village. Embittered and suspicious from the war, the people hide their food and close their windows tight. That is, unti...more
Hardcover, 32 pages
Published
March 1st 2003
by Scholastic Press
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Of all the books I read my kids Jon J. Muth's Stone Soup is far and away my favourite.
Not only is it a beautiful retelling of a classic tale, it is the finest telling of the tale I have ever seen. Muth's watercolours are exquisite: sparing, richly detailed, perfectly moody and expressive.
And his choice of setting is sublime. Muth sets his version in a small walled village at the base of a mountain in China. Three monks come to the town one morning and start making stone soup, drawing the village...more
Not only is it a beautiful retelling of a classic tale, it is the finest telling of the tale I have ever seen. Muth's watercolours are exquisite: sparing, richly detailed, perfectly moody and expressive.
And his choice of setting is sublime. Muth sets his version in a small walled village at the base of a mountain in China. Three monks come to the town one morning and start making stone soup, drawing the village...more
Grade Level: 3-4
Main Characters: Hok, Tok, and Siew
Setting: an oriental village
POV: third person
Summary:
This story begins with three monks traveling in the mountains pondering. The youngest monk asks the oldest monk, "What makes one happy, Siew". Siew responds by saying, "Let's find out". They make their way to a village that has gone through many hardships, which have made them all un-trusting of strangers, but also each other. No one greets the monks as they go in the village, and they begin t...more
Main Characters: Hok, Tok, and Siew
Setting: an oriental village
POV: third person
Summary:
This story begins with three monks traveling in the mountains pondering. The youngest monk asks the oldest monk, "What makes one happy, Siew". Siew responds by saying, "Let's find out". They make their way to a village that has gone through many hardships, which have made them all un-trusting of strangers, but also each other. No one greets the monks as they go in the village, and they begin t...more
The story opens with three monks walking along a pathway in the mountains of China. They are discussing cat whiskers, the color of the sun, and giving. The question arises, "What makes one happy?" They discuss the subject for a while. Soon they come upon a village that has met hard times. Famine, floods, and war have made the villagers suspicious of neighbors and untrusting of strangers. The villagers work hard but only for themselves. When the monks arrived no one greeted them at the town gate...more
I chose the book Stone Soup by Jon J. Muth, which is a Chinese folklore story. In the beginning of the story, you meet three monks- Hok, Lok, and Siew. They take a journey along a mountain road to try to find out what makes people happy. They come upon a village which has been through tough times and the people aren't trusting of strangers and their fellow neighbors. The people in the village only worked for their own benefit. The monks are not greeted by the people and the people refuse to answ...more
Category: Grades K-3, Book #12
This book is about traveling strangers who convince a town to help them make soup. All of the villagers are very apprehensive at first about helping strangers but when the aromas of the delicious broth begin to circulate, so do the people and they become compelled to help make the soup by adding ingredients from their own homes. At the end of the book, everyone gets to enjoy the soup they made together and the villagers learned that being together and helping one an...more
This book is about traveling strangers who convince a town to help them make soup. All of the villagers are very apprehensive at first about helping strangers but when the aromas of the delicious broth begin to circulate, so do the people and they become compelled to help make the soup by adding ingredients from their own homes. At the end of the book, everyone gets to enjoy the soup they made together and the villagers learned that being together and helping one an...more
Title: Stone Soup
Author: Jon J. Muth
Illustrator: Jon J. Muth
Publisher: Scholastic Press
Publishing Date: 2003
ISBN Number: 978-0-439-33909-4
Summary: This the retelling of a fable about three monks who come to a town and discover the people living there are quite wary of strangers and do not open their hearts to the visitors. The town has been through very tough times and the villagers are cold and bitter. the three monks begin to build a fire and put a small kettle on with water in it. A little...more
A folktale story that I just finished reading, called Stone Soup by Jon J Muth, is a very delightful story. It is a story about three monks who set off on a journey to find out what makes people happy. As they enter a village during their quest, the take in the hostility of the village. They notice how everyone kept to themselves and were very wary about strangers entering their village. The monks realized these people were not happy, and decided to bring happiness to them. The begin making Ston...more
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Stone Soup by Jon J. Muth is a variant of the tale I know best from the Marcia Brown version. I have used Brown's version with plastic food and a kettle to tell Sone Soup countless times in Storytime over the years. So I was curious to see what the Muth version was like. Different, yet similar, and delightful is my verdict.
Three monks, strangers hungry and tired, stop at a war torn walled village. Suspicious from the war and wary of each other, the people hide their food and close windows tight....more
Three monks, strangers hungry and tired, stop at a war torn walled village. Suspicious from the war and wary of each other, the people hide their food and close windows tight....more
I feel that this is an excellent book, that the story teaches an amazing concept of sharing and working together. I feel that this book helps children understand that when they work together things can get accomplished and it can also be fun. This book also helps children understand the concept of building positive relationships and being helpful towards one another.
Learning activity:
We will make our own stone soup as a class! I will assign each child to bring in a small zip lock bag of fesh c...more
Learning activity:
We will make our own stone soup as a class! I will assign each child to bring in a small zip lock bag of fesh c...more
Stone Soup is a great story to discuss lessons about sharing, friendship, and happiness. I gave this book 5 stars because I like the themes discussed and I think Ruth did a great job using illustrations to help enhance the meaning. This is a folklore book intended for primary readers. It is the story of 3 monks who wandered into an isolated, unfriendly village. Due to past hardships, the villagers were greedy and did not share anything. By making soup with no ingredients to begin with, the contr...more
Stone Soup is a picturebook and it is suitable for 4th grade and above. The book is about 3 monks traveling through a town. The realize that the people are not very friendly. During their journey the decide to make something called Stone Soup. The preparation of this soup brings the people out of their houses to find out what is going on. The book ends with all the people coming together and giving all they had to the soup. The great things is they came together and many friendships were created...more
After being blown away by Zen Shorts – one of the cleverest picture books I’ve ever encountered – I’ve been super curious about more of Muth’s work. His follow up titled Zen Ties was quite nice, but I wanted more! And yet, I still go into each of his books thinking they are going to be too big for their britches. And, so far, I’m always wrong. This is such a lovely, understated tale about transforming bitterness into cooperation. And, gosh, I just love Muth’s illustrations – particularly those f...more
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I have read several different versions of Stone Soup. Stone Soup is a folk store that has roots in European folklore. This, by far, is one of my favorite retellings of the classic folkstory. I love that this story takes place in China. The pastel watercolors are absolutely beautiful and they add to the serenity and positive message of the book. The words are simple enough for a young preschooler to enjoy, yet an older student would enjoy this folk story as well. At the end of the book, the autho...more
By far my favorite version of this timeless tale. We especially loved the water color, the Buddhist spin, and how the author/illustrator? taught us at the end how to study the illustrations in this and consequently any book for deeper meaning by introducing a few common symbols utilized for this piece. We went back and "read" the pictures again afterward. Morgan was delighted to learn that he had already noticed several details that I hadn't (he always does--that eye for visual detail); he learn...more
480L
GLE 3.3
Genre: Traditional Literature, Folktales
This is an interesting take on the folktale of Stone Soup. It tells the story of three hungry strangers who pass through a war-torn town in Asia. The people of the town are scared from the war and are suspicious of the traveling strangers. They keep their windows tight and their food hidden. The strangers have to come up with something to eat, and create stone soup. This idea is that everyone brings what they have and they put it into a soup. E...more
GLE 3.3
Genre: Traditional Literature, Folktales
This is an interesting take on the folktale of Stone Soup. It tells the story of three hungry strangers who pass through a war-torn town in Asia. The people of the town are scared from the war and are suspicious of the traveling strangers. They keep their windows tight and their food hidden. The strangers have to come up with something to eat, and create stone soup. This idea is that everyone brings what they have and they put it into a soup. E...more
Feb 04, 2013
Salima Hart
rated it
4 of 5 stars
Shelves:
ece-3601-spring-2013-tuesday,
lessons-to-learn
This is a great story that teaches the importance of sharing and working together. Two hungry travelers go door to door looking for food, but no one wants to share. Eventually they get the idea to make their famous stone soup. Everyone wants some of the soup, but more ingredients are needed. In the end, everyone contributes to the meal and the entire town enjoys the delicious stone soup. You can really engage readers by stopping and having them contribute what items they would put in the stone s...more
This book is about three strangers who convince a town to help them make soup. All of the villagers are very apprehensive at first about helping strangers until they began smelling the aromas of the delicious broth Then the people start coming together to help make the soup by adding ingredients from their own homes. At the end of the book, everyone gets to enjoy the soup they made together and the villagers learned that being together and helping one another is better than living in solitude. C...more
There are many versions of this European folklore. In this particular book there are three monks that come across a small village that had been ravaged by hard times and all its inhabitants had grown cold to not only outsiders but one another. After the monks enter they begin to make stone soup which ignites curiosity among the villagers and slowly but surely they come out to see and par take in the making of the soup. Eventually they all come together to give generously to create soup for the e...more
The best retelling of this classic story that we've seen. Reading the insights on the back page really bring what the author is doing to life.
A gentle yet powerful classic that reminds us of the importance of community and the magic of giving. John J Muth's watercolours add a special touch to this version of a the story. I love the way that the little by little a selfish community is transformed before our eyes into one of love and celebration.
Publisher's overview:
Award-winning artist Jon J Muth retells the favorite tale of a selfish community who is tricked into creating a delicious soup from stones. Set in China in Muth's hauntingly...more
Publisher's overview:
Award-winning artist Jon J Muth retells the favorite tale of a selfish community who is tricked into creating a delicious soup from stones. Set in China in Muth's hauntingly...more
I absolutely loved the way this book was written!! The storyline is amazing and the pictures make it that much more fun! The story follows three monks and is based in China. The whole book is based around the idea of finding out what makes one happy. It starts off simple, with the help of a young girl, they create stone soup which began as three rocks and a pot. But once the fire began to grow, people in the village became interested and curious. Everyone began bringing their own little addition...more
Same old story, but Muth paints beautiful pictures, and we're fond of stories set in China.
Library copy
Library copy
Well,who would ever think that just a couple of stones and three weary soldiers could bring a whole village to prepare and share a splendid meal together? There were three very smart and kind men who visited the peasant's village that day.
This book is about learning to share and to always be ready to learn something new.
Extension:
The children can prepare their own soup with their favorite ingredients. It's always interesting to see what combinations they will think of! This will also help the c...more
This book is about learning to share and to always be ready to learn something new.
Extension:
The children can prepare their own soup with their favorite ingredients. It's always interesting to see what combinations they will think of! This will also help the c...more
This book is adorable and there are several adaptation to it in circulation. Muth does an excellent job informing readers about some aspects of Eastern culture in a way that allows students from around the world to relate the text to their own lives. This book may be used to dispel conflict in a classroom by having the children brainstorm their own solutions.
-Who are some workers in your community?
-What ideas do you have to bring people together who may not like one another?
-Did you learn anythi...more
-Who are some workers in your community?
-What ideas do you have to bring people together who may not like one another?
-Did you learn anythi...more
The classic folk story about creating something from nothing and learning to give in the process retains its important message even in a new setting. Muth sets his version of the story in a secluded Chinese village. The muted illustrations perfectly convey the idea of a time long ago in a place far away--perhaps not fully real, but real enough to every reader who picks up the book. Muth notes at the end that there are many symbolic elements of Chinese culture throughout his text and illustration...more
I enjoyed it at first even I was curious about the Stone Soup. then I realized this book was about sharing. I would read this book to my classroom to show them that when people work together things turn out much better then working alone.
Learning extension: I create an activity where more than 1 person is needed to be completed. I would have them maybe prepare a sandwich in each student would have an individual part to do. With this activity each time you will realize that they need each other i...more
Learning extension: I create an activity where more than 1 person is needed to be completed. I would have them maybe prepare a sandwich in each student would have an individual part to do. With this activity each time you will realize that they need each other i...more
This book is a really good book for building communty within the classroom, like it happened in the book. The teacher can have students bring canned food, potatoes, carrots, ect. to make thier own stone soup.
Quesions for students-
Self-to-text; is there a time when you were unable to do or accomplish something on your own, but with the help of others, the goal was met?
Predicting; At different points in the book, have students predict what will happen next.
CAuse and effect; What happened to cause...more
Quesions for students-
Self-to-text; is there a time when you were unable to do or accomplish something on your own, but with the help of others, the goal was met?
Predicting; At different points in the book, have students predict what will happen next.
CAuse and effect; What happened to cause...more
Stone Soups tells the story of three monks who go out on a journey in search of what every human seeks out which is happiness. In a small village with such different people, the three monks decide that stone soup may create a sense of connection. They are successful in this endeavor because the neighbors come together and connect. Thus, the soup is sort of a symbolic melting pot because even though we are all different, we can always find some common ground!
A wonderful book teaching the value of happiness and helping hands. A group of monks visit a village and effortlessly convince a struggling village to come together and share what they have. My students read this book every year as part of our reading curriculum and they always make connections with other books about the lesson learned in this old folk tale. It would be fun to read this story and work as a class to conjure up some "Stone Soup" too.
Stone Soup By: Jon J Muth ISBN 043933909, 2003. Hok, Lok, and Siew were three monks that traveled to an untrusting nearby town to see what makes one happy. The three monks discovered the villagers did not know happiness, so they decided to show them how to make stone soup. The monks started a fire in the middle of the courtyard and a young girl brought her mother’s large pot, soon other villager’s brought other supplies out to put into the soup. After the soup was done the villager’s ate togethe...more
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Jon J. Muth is an American comic artist. His works include J. M. DeMatteis' graphic novel Moonshadow, Neil Gaiman's The Sandman: The Wake (along with Michael Zulli, Charles Vess), Mike Cary's Lucifer: Nirvana and Swamp Thing: Roots. Muth has gone on to an award-winning career as a children's book writer and illustrator. He received a Gold Medal from the Society of Illustrators for his illustration...more
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