Feasts

Thanksgiving and other holidays approach, but instead of examining stories about Thanksgiving, I looked for books about feasts and feasting. From the very short "The Beastly Feast" and "Mouse Mess" to the more involved "Stone Soup", let's turn our attention to FOOD! Another fine book that almost ends in a feast is "Heckedy Peg" described in an earlier post.

The Beastly Feast
By Bruce Goldstein

Illustrated by Blair Lent

"The beasts are having a feast!" begins a romping rhyme that describes a menu made up of each animal's contribution to the pot luck. Bears bring pears and parrots bring carrots, fleas bring peas and flies bring pies until everyone is full. At the end of this little story, the beasts all clap, then take a nap. For very young children, this book will be a fun read-aloud, and older children can use it to inspire writing their own rhyming pairs. What food (or other word) might rhyme with your name?

Stone Soup
By Heather Forest

There are several versions of the classic story "Stone Soup". This one stays close to the original tale, but has captivating illustrations and a simpler story. Two travelers stop in a mountain village hoping for a meal, but when the villagers refuse, the travelers tell them they can make soup out of  a stone. The villagers are fascinated, and are soon sucked in to help, first with a pot of water and a fire, then by bringing a few carrots, some onions, potatoes, and so on. Before long, all the ingredients of a fine soup have been provided by the villagers, and they marvel at the cleverness of the travelers. The illustrations are vibrant, and a cute feature pictures each vegetable offered by a villager in a speech bubble on the page. A recipe for Stone Soup is included. This book provides opportunities for writing lists of vegetables, recipes for favorite foods, procedural writing,and stories about sharing, as well as cooking activities in the classroom.

Mouse Mess

By Linnea Asplind Riley
"Mouse Mess" is a delightfully light story portraying a mouse in a human kitchen at night foraging for food. The pictures are boldly colorful and the rhyming words just as vivid. The mouse happily crunches and crackles through a feast of delectables, blissfully dropping pieces and crumbs everywhere as he goes. When the mouse is finally full, he heads for a bath in a teacup but leaves an enormous mess behind. Kids love this story about a feast of food that is a feast for the eyes and ears as well. This is a great book to introduce onomatopoeia (remember? words that sound like the sounds they describe), to make lists categories of foods, or to inspire writing about favorite foods, a topic near and dear to the hearts of children everywhere. It is also one of my favorite books to teach rhyming words.

Story Props for "The Beastly Feast", "Stone Soup", and "Mouse Mess"

The first group of play vegetables can be cut apart and put back together thanks to the miracle of Velcro. The second group comes in a basket and these vegetables are one-piece. The first cooking set shown has pots, pans and utencils only. When looking for dish sets to play "Stone Soup", make sure there are bowls for soup in the set like those below.