Mean Soup

Rating:
Summary: This book advocates dangerous, life threatening behaviors!
Review: A mother allows her out-of-control son to teeter over the kitchen stove on a long-legged bar stool. She then has him put his face over the lit stove and yell into a steaming pot of boiling water! He is then given a wooden spoon and ecouraged to bang the pot of roiling soup. Later, he literally breathes fire with his "dragon breath". In another illustration, he is permitted to ride home from school in a car driven by his mother's friend who is so wild that she nearly kills 3 poodles!

Woe is the child who takes it upon himself to mimic the behaviors so charmingly illustrated in this book! Humor is great, but this stuff isn't funny, it's dangerous. Managing anger is an important skill, but doing so with fire and boiling soup is a recipe for disaster!

It is shocking that a publisher would release such a reckless book. It is incomprehensible and irresponsible for any reviewer to laud this book's tackling of anger management without condemning the specific behaviors employed and illustrated in this story. Any parent modeling the behaviors shown in this book is a good candidate for incarceration for child endangerment. This is one book to stay away from!

Rating:
Summary: A Cute Way To Relieve Stress
Review: Horace has had to deal with quite a bit today, and when he gets home from school he is definitely in a very, very bad mood; so bad in fact, that he "hisses" at his mother when she greets him at the door! After his temper tantrum (which really is adorable, not bratty!), his mother suggests that they make soup. Still feeling mean, Horace watches in astonishment as his mother finds an incredibly funny (and ingenious) way to lure him out of his bad mood.

Thoughtful, creative and beautifully illustrated, MEAN SOUP teaches children how to act out their anger and frustration in a positive, fun way. Don't just settle for a library copy of this book. It is definitely worth a buy. You will be reading it over and over again as a pleasant, subtle reminder to children who, like Horace, are having a tough time dealing with tough days!

Approximately 14 pages. One sentence and a beautiful illustration on each page. Some blends and sight words present... The recommended reading level for this book is ages 4-8. I would say that perhaps advanced pre-school (read aloud - child should have good comprehension skills) to remedial 2nd is more like it. The main idea is for a varied audience, but certainly not the reading level.

Rating:
Summary: mean soup
Review: perfect for new mom'spowerful messageI wish this book had been out 35yearsago,when I was a naive,first time mom.

Rating:
Summary: mean soup
Review: Young Horace has had a really bad day; nothing went right at school, and nothing went right after it. But, his mother knew what to do. Putting a pan full of water on the stove, she encouraged him to scream and shout and pour his frustration into the soup--the mean soup.

This is quite a cute book, showing a cute way to relieve stress. The illustrations are quirky and go along beautifully with the story. I like this book!

One thing I must say, though. My eight-year-old son selected this book for a reading project, but it was quite beneath his ability. With only a few words per page, it is more useful as a lesson than as reading material. I would recommend it for somewhat younger readers. Nonetheless, I liked this book, and recommend it to you.