Some Friends to Feed: The Story of Stone Soup

by Pete Seeger, Paul DuBois Jacobs, Michael Hays

A poor but clever traveler finds a way to get the townspeople to share their food with him in this retelling of a classic tale, set in Germany at the end of the Thirty Years War.

Genres: Picture Books, Folk Tales, Childrens

40 pages, Hardcover

First published September 8, 2005

About the author

Peter Seeger, better known as Pete Seeger, was a folk singer, political activist, and a key figure in the mid-20th century American folk music revival. As a member of the Weavers, he had a string of hits, including a 1949 recording of Leadbelly's "Goodnight Irene" that topped the charts for 13 weeks in 1950. However, his career as a mainstream performer was seriously curtailed by the Second Red Scare: he came under severe attack as a former member of the Communist Party of the United States of America. Later, he re-emerged on the public scene as a pioneer of protest music in the late 1950s and the 1960s.

He was perhaps best known as the author or co-author of the songs "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?", "If I Had a Hammer (The Hammer Song)", and "Turn, Turn, Turn!", which have been recorded by many artists both in and outside the folk revival movement and are still sung throughout the world. "Flowers" was a hit recording for The Kingston Trio (1962), Marlene Dietrich, who recorded it in English, German and French (1962), and Johnny Rivers (1965). "If I Had a Hammer" was a hit for Peter, Paul & Mary (1962) and Trini Lopez (1963), while The Byrds popularized "Turn, Turn, Turn!" in the mid-1960s. Seeger was also widely credited with popularizing the traditional song "We Shall Overcome", which was recorded by Joan Baez and many other singer-activists, and became the publicly perceived anthem of the 1960s American Civil Rights Movement soon after musicologist Guy Carawan introduced it at the founding meeting of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in 1960.

Reviews

[Carla H.]

This version of "Stone Soup" is awesome because Pete Seeger wrote a little chorus (melody and guitar chords included!) and it's simple enough that you can teach the kids and have them sing along!!! A great story of community and cooperation, and fun participation - WIN/WIN!

[Emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

A version of the classic tale set in seventeenth-century Germany. Not my favorite illustration style. The accompanying CD with Seeger reading the story and playing the banjo with the song parts greatly added to the appeal, though.

[Jean-Marie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Love the story of stone soup but didn't love this version. The story felt thin and rushed. We did not listen to the CD, which may have improved our favorability of the book.

[Karla · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great remake of a classic
Good illustrations too

[Susan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Includes a CD with Pete Seeger reading the story and adding in a singing part. Nice telling.

[Ariel · Rating 5 out of 5]

The story of "Stone Soup" is a tale that has been told for decades, and Pete Seeger takes this tale and applies to a time in Europe when a soldier comes into a town of famine and helps them by making stone soup. I love the message of this tale, and how through a trial a little inkling of hope can bring a group of distraught people back to the light. This book would be more for the 3rd-4th grade range, and includes a song that the students can sing along to while the story is being read aloud. This picture story book is a beautiful representation of a classic tale.

[Bella · Rating 5 out of 5]

In my Children's Book Illustration class my teacher brought this in for us to read, he waited to see if anyone would notice who the illustrator was, and when I did I was surprised to see that it was actually my teacher Michael.

[Rachel Dalton · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a great retelling of the stone soup story. The pictures are bright and pretty and the story is a little longer than some versions. Great to include in a unit on fables.