Nail soup
(Book)
Description
Copies
Location | Call Number | Status |
---|---|---|
Calumet City Public Library - Juvenile Stacks | E MAD | On Shelf |
Franklin Park Library District - Kids Nonfiction | J 398.29485 MAD | On Shelf |
Glen Ellyn Public Library - Juvenile Non-Fiction | J398.209485 MAD | On Shelf |
St. Charles Public Library District - Youth Services Picture Book | PB TRADITIONAL SWEDISH MAD | On Shelf |
More Details
Notes
Published Reviews
School Library Journal Review
K-Gr 3-In this retelling of a Swedish folktale, a Traveller wants to get out of the snowy woods and looks for a cottage to spend the night. A burly, scowling woman takes him in but tells him that she has nothing in the house to eat-so he offers to make Nail Soup. Dropping a rusty nail into a pot of boiling water, he thinks of ingredient after ingredient that would make the soup better. "But-what one has to do without,/It's no use thinking more about." Each time the woman finds just the flour, beef, potatoes, or herb needed-and so it becomes like the soup the King and Queen eat. By sharing food and telling stories, they make the evening magical. Not only does the woman make up the spare bed for him, but she also gives him a gold coin as he walks away into the green forest the next morning. Maddern uses a storyteller's cadence, and words flow beautifully, begging to be read aloud. The artwork is done in watercolors with a jewel-tone palette and features strange perspectives with rooms in the cottage that are castle-size and floors that tilt crazily. The fanciful pictures hint at magic, transforming the Traveller and the woman into royalty, Nail Soup into a tasty meal, and winter into summer. Pair this with Marcia Brown's classic Stone Soup (S & S, 1947) and consider whose hearts were softened and whose heads were merely tricked.-Mary Jean Smith, Southside Elementary School, Lebanon, TN (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Book Review
A Scandinavian variant of the familiar Stone Soup retold by Welsh storyteller Maddern. Of all the folktale archetypes that promote the value of collective collaboration, few are more serviceable than the tale of a hungry traveler who has nothing to put into his kettle of boiling water but, in this case, a common nail. He persuades others to contribute what they have in the way of food and seasoning until he has a savory soup to share. In this version, the traveler stops at the cottage of a thickset, plainspoken woman who he convinces first to let him sleep on the floor, even though her husband is away, and then to add potatoes, milk, barley and herbs to his pot. Finally she produces linens, flowers, wine and a spare bed. This concludes with a grace note regarding the heart-softening properties of shared food and stories. While the tale is well-known, Hess's paintings, with their surrealistic settings, canted perspectives, mysteriously exotic traveler and softly transformed housewife, lend unexpected freshness. (Picture book/folklore. 4-8) Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Reviews from GoodReads
Citations
Maddern, E., & Hess, P. (2007). Nail soup . Frances Lincoln Children's.
Chicago / Turabian - Author Date Citation, 17th Edition (style guide)Maddern, Eric and Paul Hess. 2007. Nail Soup. London: Frances Lincoln Children's.
Chicago / Turabian - Humanities (Notes and Bibliography) Citation, 17th Edition (style guide)Maddern, Eric and Paul Hess. Nail Soup London: Frances Lincoln Children's, 2007.
Harvard Citation (style guide)Maddern, E. and Hess, P. (2007). Nail soup. London: Frances Lincoln Children's.
MLA Citation, 9th Edition (style guide)Maddern, Eric., and Paul Hess. Nail Soup Frances Lincoln Children's, 2007.