Pumpkin Soup: Celebrate 25 years of this timeless classic

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The book Delicious by Helen Cooper is an adorable and interactive book that will be extremely fun if used with your own children or students at school. There are many features to this book that I took a liking to and gave a prestigious five star rating to. In this book review we will look at the elements of design in picture books and go in detail what made me favor this book so much. Space was definitely a huge part in this book; a lot of the illustrations were just the characters engaging in conversation with each other. In other illustrations they were shown in a huge field searching for different ingredients to put in their soup. Also, they detached the bugs from the story in many different places showing a side story that the bugs wanted to save the soup they were wasting. The story was written in third person describing all the events taking place. So the viewpoint was coming from a story teller. The mask can provide a source of inspiration for a pumpkin lantern design which can be cut into a pumpkin. Talk about the pumpkin as you make the lantern, the smell, the feel and how it looks both inside and out. Plant seeds The language is expressive and descriptive, which sets the story in sentences which move at an exciting pace. ‘When no one was watching he peeled them, and sliced them, and chopped them, and diced them, and squished them and plopped them into the cooking pot’.

It is a very nice tale about accepting our own limitations, pushing them, helping each others, and friendship. And pumpkin soup, of course!! Throughout the story it contains repetitions which could allow children to join in whilst the story is being read to them. The use of capitals in the story allows the children to see which words are being shouted this will allow the children to start thinking of expression whilst they read stories. First, the lines in this book are rounded and soft giving life to all the characters and objects in the story. Everything is drawn so it looks real, not just a one dimensional character that usually would look fake. Every object drawn has multiple characteristics about it, allowing a child to relate to something in real life. I feel this book would provide excellent opportunity for enhancing language skills, exploring food and animals as themes, and could be an excellent starting point for an interesting classroom display.One of the illustrations shows the animals making their soup, as seen through the window. Can you draw a picture with a view through a window (looking into or out of a building)? The story got a bit scary at one point, even though the fear was limited to the imaginations of two of the friends. A collection of outstanding illustrations accompany a great story, that can immerse it's audience with it's charm.

Helen Cooper is an author and illustrator whose work includes classic titles such as The Bear Under the Stairs, Pumpkin Soup, The Baby Who Wouldn’t Go to Bed and Tatty Ratty. Everyone is happy when they have their own job to do. What jobs and routines do people do to keep everything organised? Do you have any classroom jobs? The tale itself was a pretty good one, with everyone wanting to try each other's jobs and taking each other's skills for granted. On the whole, it's a fun story to read aloud and would be a good precursor to a discussion about fighting among friends, different skillsets and wanting to try different things. It has an easy recipe for pumpkin soup at the end of the story and our girls are excited to try it.Look at the illustrations of Cat and Squirrel waiting on the steps. Could you draw a series of pictures like this to show some events that have taken place in a morning / afternoon?

The author uses repetition of words such as ‘scrumptious’, ‘nutritious’ and ‘delicious’ which would offer reinforcement for children expanding their vocabulary using the book. In the illustrations, there is steam rising from the Pumpkin soup. What is this? How does evaporation work? Make a list of the different words that are used instead of ‘said’ in the story, e.g. murmured, snapped, squeaked, wailed.

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Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See here for more details Helen Cooper is an author and illustrator whose work includes classic titles such as The Bear Under the Stairs, Pumpkin Soup, The Baby Who Wouldn’t Go to Bed and Tatty Ratty. Look at the facial expressions of the characters in each illustration. How are they feeling? What might they be thinking? The Pumpkin Soup books celebrate pumpkins, and cooking, and family life. Full of scrumptious colour and a riotous array of vegetables, they encourage an appetite for cooking and discovering new foods, whilst also exploring different character traits and how we all get along. All three have been highly acclaimed, and translated into many languages. Cat plays a bagpipe and Squirrel plays the banjo. How do these instruments sound? How are they played? Put the beets in a medium-size saucepan. cover with cold water and bring to a boil. Simmer, covered, for 30 to 40 minutes. Drain the beets and let them cool. The skins will then be easy to peel. Chop up the beets. (Make sure you wear an apron because beet juice is very pink!)