Mouse Soup

from the library i read this book to my granddaughter, who each night waited for one of the one page fables. And i enjoyed the spirit of them so much that i bought a copy of the book myself to interject into my own reading.

Sounds like the weasel is preparing to have a cup of Mouse Soup. In order to avoid the inevitable, Mouse tells the diner four stories that discourages him from eating mouse soup. This book is geared for the kid who can read on their own. Nice story.

Mouse Soup is another wonderful children�s story by Arnold Lobel. For any 1st to 3rd grader learning to read, this book will allow the child to feel confident and very successful!
Four stories are presented by the mouse, who was captured by the weasel for his mouse soup. The mouse tells the weasel that his soup will not taste good unless he puts stories into the soup. One plain old mouse will not a soup make! The stories are: Bees and the Mud, Two Large Stones, The Crickets, and The Thorn Bush. After the mouse has finished his delightful stories, the weasel cannot comprehend how he will get the stories into the soup! Mouse instructs him to find a nest of bees, two large stones, some crickets, and a thorn bush. Not being very smart, weasel dashes out of the house to find the items, which allows mouse to escape to the warmth and comfort of his home, to eat a great meal and to finish reading his book!
The stories told by mouse are entertaining, lively and a hoot! They will keep the little reader guessing and wanting to know what is going to happen! The illustrations are entertaining and really help to contribute to the charm of the story!
A true delight! I love Arnold Lobel�s books for children!!

Lobel's twenty original fables are splendidly quirky, and his illustrations are whimsical, colorful, and unique. Originally published in 1980, many of the concepts behind his fables have found their way into picture books since. Good literature is like that, where seeds of ideas inspire other authors in the development of their own stories.

Fables are most times simply reminding us what we know to be true. So it's the way in which you get to the truth that makes them so much fun. Using animals, and elements of myth, Lobel's fables use outstanding visual and descriptive language that kids 2nd grade on up will learn from. Teachers will especially enjoy using these tales for read aloud, skills development, and role-play. The moral of this story is that great opportunities often come in small packages.

I loved the book because the illustrations that the author makes are funny and my favorite illustration in this book is The King Lion and the Beetle. It is my favorite because the lion can't see the beetle bowing and that is funny because this makes him fall. I really liked the illustrations because the settings are extraordinary. They are nicely colored inside the pictures and you can imagine that the pictures are really real. The pictures match what the words say in the book. They are a feast for my eyes! Some people may not like that the stories aren't very long and they aren't in a series with the same characters. But I like that they were short, because you don't have to read the whole book and take a long time. I like how they ended the story with lessons that kids could learn. I think this book would be best for Kindergarten through 3rd grade (and even some adults), because this age group can get the feeling they can laugh and learn specific lessons. The length of the stories can make it easier for little readers because they are so short. This book is so brilliant because it has a lot of good stories and lessons that good old youngsters can learn. Did these silly characters really learn their lesson?

Fables is an enchanting Caldecott Award winner featuring 20 small fables. "Fables" has different animal characters in each story ranging from a baboon, dog, and even a lobster. I had never really read a fable before, or at least not one that was so clearly defined as so but I really enjoyed the different cute and funny (some more than others) stories, and they all teach their own individual lesson. Each fable has one picture with it that clearly illustrates the scene that is being set and how the different characters in each fable were envisioned. One of my favorites would have to be "The Bear and the Crow" where a bear wants be seen as stylish when he travels into town and is told by a crow what he should where in order to appear so. In the end he goes into town wearing a frying pan, a sheet, and brown bags for shoes is immediately ridiculed for this. The moral of this fable was that "When the need is strong, there are those who will believe anything". This book is meant for ages 4-8 but I read it to my class that is composed of 2 year olds and they really enjoyed it with the added voices and acts that I did. Overall I found the fables trite and true!

This book won the Caldecott Medal for the best illustrated children's book of 1981. The book contains twenty one-page fables, facing a one page illustration of the key moment in each fable. The illustrations bring the morals of these tales to life in ways that will keep your children laughing. That will make the lessons more memorable, as well as more entertaining.
The fables are uneven in the relevance and importance of their messages. I graded the book down one star for the several fables that are more irreverent than relevant. You can obtain more benefit for your child if you selectively read the fables to emphasize the more important ones.
For an example of a weaker one consider The Pelican and the Crane. This is a story about a crane who invites a pelican to tea. The pelican is horribly uncouth and messy. The pelican complains that "no one ever calls me." The moral is stated as "when one is a social failure, the reasons are as clear as day." The narrower moral is about being inconsiderate, but that is never quite spelled out. So even the weaker fables can be tightened up with a little parental explanation.
I thought that the following stories were comparable in quality to Aesop's Fables:
The Crocodile in the Bedroom ("Without a doubt, there is such a thing as too much order."; The Ducks and the Fox ("At times, a change of routine can be most healthful."); King Lion and the Beetle ("It is the high and mighty who have the longest distance to fall."); The Lobster and the Crab ("Even the taking of small risks will add excitement to life."); The Hen and the Apple Tree ("It is always difficult to pose as something one is not."); The Baboon's Umbrella ("Advice from friends is like the weather. Some of it is good; some of it is bad."); The Frogs at the Rainbow's End ("The biggest hopes may lead to the greatest disappointments."); The Camel Dancer ("Satisfaction will come to those who please themselves."); Madame Rhinoceros and Her Dress ("Nothing is harder to resist than a bit of flattery."); The Pig at the Candy Store ("A locked door is very likely to discourage temptation."); and The Mouse at the Seashore ("All the miles of hard road are worth a moment of true happiness.").
In most cases, other lessons can be drawn from the same fables. I suggest that you and your child discuss what else you noticed in the stories. You can then add experiences that each of you have had during the day, and discuss the meaning of each.
Remember that only those who wish to experience the most misery and injury themselves prefer to learn only from their own mistakes.
Remember to look on the funny side of life's hard lessons!

I purchased two editions of this book through the store: the hardback and the audible. The book is a masterpiece, but the audiobook is not divided by chapters. I can never find the fable I am looking for without getting frustrated. Whose idea was this?

If I had known I would had purchased it on CD.

I am Leaving feedback on Audible website, but since I made choice based on the information privided in this page, I am also writing it here.

Fables is a collection of fables that the author made up himself. They aren't the traditional fables of the world, but they still all contain a moral lesson. Each story is about animal characters, which makes the stories very enchanting.
Each story is very short and is contained within the borders of one page each. This is a good quality for a short story book because a story can be told in a very short amount of time. The whole book does not have to be read in order for the reader to benefit from it. The meaning of every story is stated at the bottom of every page. This is an advantage to the reader because they do not have to read the entire story to figure out if they want to read that particular fable.
Each fable is accompanied by its own colorful illustration. The illustrations are large and cover the entire page opposite the fable that it belongs to. Some of the illustrations are rather humorous and get the reader's attention before they even begin reading the story.
This would be a good book to have in a younger aged classroom. The stories are short so the reader is not bogged down by a long drawn out story. They are also humorous and are sure to get a laugh out of any youngster.

My eight year old daughter came home from school with this book and proceeded to read many of the stories out loud (to me and to anyone else who would listen). The book has wonderful illustrations and each of the stories is brief and concise yet, entertaining. My daughter was eager to own the book and begged for me to buy it for her. At the end of each story is a one sentence 'moral' which helps focus the reader and helps her pay attention to the meaning of the fable.

A practically perfectly delightful tale in the typical silly tender of a "David" mouse versus the "Goliath" weasel whom Mouse outsmarts. While the original Stone Soup story (whose story line is also evidenced here) is one in which everyone gets some soup, the 1st to 3rd grade level reader will follow the winding story trail to discover what just deserts the weasel receives! Our readers found the reading level challenging, but the story line interesting enough with its little twists & turns in plots to encourage them to push through. The tale encourages re-reading, and the dialogue closely resembles that of children at silly play... at least it certainly resembled MY children! I'm thrilled to have found readers that truly interest my children in reading on their own, during the summer, when there are many OTHER activites that could keep them from enjoying QUIET pastime!

This children's book consists of twenty original fables containing animal characters (just as in Aesop's fables) with a moral at the end of each: for example, "Knowledge will not always take the place of simple observation." The book won the 1981 Caldecott Medal for best illustration in a book for children.