Cactus Soup

Genre: Legend (fiction)

Summary: When the local town hears the soldiers are coming to their town they hide all of their food so that the soldiers do not take it all. When the soldiers come they sure enough ask for food, but when they hear there is no food they end up tricking the town into giving them food to make "cactus" soup. This is a twist on the folktale Stone Soup. Although tricked, the townspeople and the soldiers ended up having a good time together at their spontaneous fiesta.

Review: This is a great twist on the folktale Stone Soup. It is a funny rendition that could allow for a tie in of the Mexican revolution. The outcome of creating soup from a cactus spike is unrealistic, but the deeper message does successfully come show more across through this story. show less

"Stone Soup" is one of my favorite folktales, so it's not terribly surprising that I enjoyed this Mexican variation. A smattering of Spanish words add flavor to the text, and while I'm not sure how accurately the illustrations reflect Mexican faces, shapes, and colors, I found the warm palette and lanky silhouettes atmospheric and inviting.

Personal Response:

I loved this book. I love the story "Stone Soup" and have had a lot of fun with it with my students. Living in New Mexico, the Mexican/Southwestern twists make this story even more relevant to us!

School/Library Uses:

During the after-school program at my school, I've used one of the more traditional "Stone Soup" versions, and made stone soup with the kids. When, a certain ingredient was mentioned, the student with that ingredient put it in the pot. It would be a lot of fun to do the same thing with this book.

I also want to do a unit on adaptations, and this book would be a good one to include.

Eric Kimmel gives new life to the same old hum drum fairytales! His charecters truly come to life...my husband and I find oursleves reading with crazy new voices we didn't realize we had. My children love that they recognize the story, but that it also has a new twist. Big faves at our house include Cactus Soup (Stone soup), The Runaway Tortilla (The Gingerbread Man), and The Three Cabritos (The Three Billy Goats Gruff). These tales are fun for the adult readers, as well as the kiddoes...for Kimmels great commentary on those with a "small world-view" check out Pumpkinhead. Great tales, with great lessons!

I thought that Cactus Soup was a good book for young readers to understand the importance of being compassionate and sharing. Although the town of San Miguel did not have much to share with the soldiers, they managed to make a soup that was plentiful for both the town and their visitors. Even though there was a bit of trickery involved throughout the story, the overall message was a good one. The soldiers bamboozled the townspeople into allowing them to be fed through a mind game. They played with their emotions of how to make the soup better but it ultimately led them to a connection and understanding of one another. I think that this book shows the importance of sharing what little we may have with our neighbors. It is a good story show more that has some interesting and funny aspects to make it effective for young children to learn from. show less

The story Cactus Soup is basically a different version of the story Stone Soup. In this book, soldiers are supposed to be coming through a village, so the mayor makes everyone hide all of their food because he says the soldiers are greedy and will eat it all. By the time the soldiers get there, they tell the townspeople that they are hungry and want to make cactus soup, and that all they need is the thorn of a cactus and some water. Once they are provided with these ingredients, they keep saying how it's good, but it could be improved if they would just add a little bit of "_______", and the townspeople end up offering them the ingredients until they have made a big pot of delicious soup for everyone. I thought this book was really good show more and it had great illustrations to go along with the story. It has a great lesson for kids that sharing and not being greedy is often the best way to go, because it benefit more than just yourself. Highly recommend! show less

I would use this book in order to bring in other cultures into our classroom. This book could be used in the elementary grades to discuss history, or simply as a read aloud to discuss various cultures. The story discusses food from Mexico and uses other Spanish vocabulary, and includes a helpful glossary in the back. The pictures are bright and fun. I would recommend this book for a classroom library.