Stone Soup

by Tony Ross

A clever hen manages to stall a hungry wolf's plans to make a meal of her by persuading him to taste her stone soup first

Genres: Picture Books, Childrens, Animals, Fairy Tales, Folklore

32 pages, Paperback

Published September 1, 1992

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.

Tony Ross is a British illustrator and author of children's picture books. He was a student at the Liverpool School of Art and Design. Ross has had quite a few occupations, such as cartoonist, graphic designer, art director at an advertising agency, senior lecturer in art and head of the illustration course at Manchester Polytechnic.
Ross won the 1986 Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis, picture books category, for Ich komm dich holen!, (I'm coming to get you! - Andersen, 1984. He was runner-up for the 1990 Kate Greenaway Medal from the Library Association, recognising the year's best children's book by a British subject, for Dr. Xargle's book of Earth Tiggers.

Meet the illustrator
What is your favourite animal?
A cat
What is your favourite boy’s name?
Bill
What is your favourite girl’s name?
Roxanne
What is your favourite food?
Lobster
What is your favourite music?
Irish
What is your favourite hobby?
Sailing

Reviews

[Bea · Rating 4 out of 5]

A clever and funny update of the classic Stone Soup story with aspects of The Three Little Pigs and The Big Bad Wolf woven. My class of ones and twos really enjoyed it and so did I. I even felt sorry for the wolf.

[Christi Murray · Rating 4 out of 5]

We loved this book. My grandson said he would like to also have chili with the big bad wolf. Fun read with little ones and gives them some insight on chores around the house as well

[Sally Edsall · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a classic fable. My father used to tell it to me when I was young, and I was delighted to see it in book form. In this version, there is a fairly standard fairy-tale baddie - the wolf. In the version I knew as a child, it was a tramp, tricking a cook in a kitchen to prepare him a nourishing meal. I am sure there are other versions out there!

This one is nicely illustrated with bright, lively pictures. Although not a "favourite" book, it has found its place in the bedtime story repertoire.

[Catherine · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a very funny, clever turn on the classic fable Stone Soup. It combines Stone Soup with the Big Bad Wolf quite nicely. I will read this to my First graders later this year, when they are better able to appreciate it. Our curriculum includes Stone Soup very early in the year, and this is a bit too sophisticated for us yet. But come spring we will read it together for sure.

[Debra · Rating 3 out of 5]

An older version of Stone Soup with a wolf doing errands for a hen as she cooks up stone soup to share before he plans to eat her for his supper. Those this is a super cute version, it is an older publication and I will continue my search for more current versions of the story.

[Karen Dransfield · Rating 4 out of 5]

A wolf decides he will eat mother chicken... but she has other plans...

[Jenna Montgomery · Rating 4 out of 5]

Clever Mother Hen finds perfect way to not only stall the wolf from eating her but gets him to do all the household chores in the meantime.

[Kate CB · Rating 4 out of 5]

EYFS/KS1

[James Son · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book starts off with introducing the big bad wolf. As he walks through town and scares all the other animals, he sees Mother Hen hanging up her clothes. He went up to the hen and threaten to eat her. However, the quick witted Mother Hen, offered to make the wolf soup, then he can eat her. She picked up a stone, and said she will make the wolf her famous stone soup. The confused wolf tasted the soup and declared it to be awful. The clever hen convinced the wolf it still needed ingredients, so he had to wait. While he waits, she tells the wolf to do some chores. The stupid wolf, does everything the hen tells him to, one by one. The dishes, cleaning, fetching the hen's clothes, cutting logs, and even more ridiculous things. Finally after all that work, the soup id finally finished. After the wolf finishes the soup, Mother Hen, tells him he can eat her now. Too full, the wolf refuses.

This book is a really good children's book. It tells the classic story of a cleaver animal tricking the enemy. The author even uses the famous big bad wolf as the enemy. I think this was a very smart thing because the wolf is used as the bad person in so many books, so the children can really relate to it. Also how the hen tricks the wolf to do her chores, I thought, was really humorous and fun to read. I did not like, however, the story as a whole. I thought the ending was a little off, and was expecting more to the story. But I guess, if the story was too complex, children would have a hard time reading it, so maybe it was a smart move by the author. However, it personally did not fit my tastes.

I thought the illustrations was pretty good. I did not love it, but I also did not dislike it. It was well done and colorful. The readers can clearly see the wolf struggling and being tricked by the hen. Also how Mother Hen seems to be in control is clearly drawn. However, for a story like this, I would have preferred the pictures to be a little more silly. I feel like even though the text made Mother Hen to be very confident, the pictures sometimes displayed her being desperate. I thought there was some parts where the pictures and the texts did not match.

[Kalynn · Rating 3 out of 5]

In this story there is a wolf and a hen. The wolf sees the hen and says he gonna take all her things and then eat her. The hen tells the wolf that he will have to wait until shes done making her stone soup. The wolf is shocked that the hen can make soup out of stone. While the hen is making the stone soup she has the wolf do all her chores around the house. When the soup is finished the wolf eats all the soup and is so full from the soup he can no longer eat her. So instead he just steals the stone. As the wolf is running off with the stone she pulls a lever and the wolf falls through a trap door.

The theme of this book is ignorance vs. smart. The wolf is ignorant. He doesn't think about the hen and just wants to take all her stuff and eat her. The hen is smart by making the wolf distracted while shes making the soup and make him so full he could eat the hen. The plot was very fast paced. the wolf keeps cleaning and the soup is cooking very fast. Right after the wolf steals the hens stone the wolf falls into a trap door and thats the end of the book. It comes very fast after the climax. The wolf in this story is very stereotypical. This wolf is like every other wolf in all the traditional stories. He is mean and wants to eat people. In traditional literature the evil character of the wolf has to be overcame by the hero which is the hen. The wolf is overcame by the hen because the wolf gets too full and now cant eat then hen. but also when the wolf tries to steal her stone the wolf falls into the hens trap door.

[Huma · Rating 2 out of 5]

‘Stone Soup’ retells the classic folk tale of the Big Bad Wolf. In this story the Wolf decides that he wants to eat the Hen, as he is a little hungry and wants to steal all of the lovely things she has. The Wolf tells the Hen about his plan, she suggests he first eat some of her stone soup, the Wolf is intrigued as he has eaten many kinds of soup, but never stone soup. She begins making her soup with a single stone in a pot of boiling water, as she adds more and more vegetable to her soup she asks the Wolf to help her with some chores around the house. Stone soup takes a very long time to cook, so the Wolf completes many chores for the Hen, such as washing the dishes, cleaning & dusting the house, bringing in the washing, cutting fire wood, fixing the TV aerial and finally cleaning the chimney. By the time the Wolf finishes all the chores the soup is ready and the Wolf begins eating. Then the Hen asks the Wolf when he is going to eat her, he tells her that he can’t as he is too full!
I did not enjoy this story as I found the ending odd. Year 3 created recipes for their own stone soups and that was how I came across this book. An appropriate age range for this book would be age 5 to 8.

[Samie Soisson · Rating 3 out of 5]

This story is about a Hen standing up to a wolf. The wold threatened to eat her and take all her things. So she told him to wait because she needed to finish making her stone soup, and she tricked him into doing all her chores around the house. Then after she made the soup and let him eat it, he was to full to eat her. So he stole the stone and left, and she go him to fall into a trap door.

The wolf is portrayed as a antagonist, like most traditional stories. The hen is protrayed as the hero. Most stories have a bad guy and then there is a hero figure that saves the day. In the theme of this story there is many things that make the wolf look idiotic, clearly the hen is tricking him into doing her chores, but the wolf falls for it and then she tricks him into eating the soup. Which causes him to get too full to eat her. In my opinion the hen is very smart into tricking the wolf, also she gets him to fall into the trap. The hen's coloring is red which shows adventure.

[Sharlie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked this story! The Mother Hen was very clever.She tricked the wolf into cleaning her house and not eating her. She told him the stone in her soup was what made it so good. The wolf didn't eat her and the only thing he stole was the stone.

[Sourimak · Rating 4 out of 5]

Une histoire très agréable à raconter avec des dialogues pleins de sous-entendus, une baisse de bonne humeur du côté du loup et l'audace malicieuse de la poule.
On se plaît à voir le gredin se faire filouter (et on apprend comment faire une bonne soupe au passage) !

[Cheryl · Rating 5 out of 5]

This has to be the funniest rendition of this tale I've read! It isn't true to the original but is hilarious, featuring the Big Bad Wolf and the Hen. Definitely recommend!

[Mfoot]

La soupe au caillou