The Whole World Inside Nan’s Soup
Reviewed by Eileen Redden
December 1, 2021
By Hunter Liguore, illustrated by Vikki Zhang. Yeehoo Press, 2021. 32 pages. $14.99/hardcover; $5.99/eBook. Friends Journal recommends for ages 3–7.
This exquisitely illustrated book demonstrates the special relationship between a grandmother and her granddaughter. The grandmother is preparing a large pot of soup. The reader learns that meal preparation is about more than just the food. It’s the time spent together, the recipe and pot passed down through the generations, and the honoring of family and community. We learn how interconnected the world is, as the meal is only possible because of the gardeners, the farm workers, the transportation network, the merchants, the seeds, the bees, the sun, the moon and the stars, the soil, the rain, and love. Basically, everyone and everything has contributed to the simple pot of soup.
This would be a wonderful book to share with a child on a cold winter day with a pot of soup simmering in the kitchen. The illustrations are detailed and imaginative, so careful inspection of them could occupy the reader for a significant amount of time.
Eileen Redden is the young Friends book review editor for Friends Journal. She worships with the Lewes Worship Group in Lewes, Del.
