Boy Soup or When Giant Caught Cold

Description

32 pages
Contains Illustrations
$16.95
ISBN 1-55037-417-6
DDC jC813'.54

Publisher

Year

1996

Contributor

Illustrations by Loris Lesynski
Reviewed by Steve Pitt

Steve Pitt is a Toronto-based freelance writer and an award-winning journalist. He has written many young adult and children's books, including Day of the Flying Fox: The True Story of World War II Pilot Charley Fox.

Review

Giant wakes up with a bad cold. Picking up his trusty Giant’s Home
Medical Guide, he reads: “Queasiness, wheeziness, coughing begun,
completely depleted and tending to droop. The only prescription? A bowl
of Boy soup.” Although Giant knows it is not quite right to turn
little boys into soup, his suffering gets the better of his
self-control. Reaching down from the sky, he captures five boys, along
with a girl named Kate. As soon as Kate learns what Giant has in mind,
she tries to dissuade him; but the big guy just points to his medical
book and its prescription. Kate knows that her friends are borscht
unless she can figure out another remedy real quick.

This quirky little tale manages to combine traditional fairy-tale
elements with a dash of modern-day ethics. The text is set in a bouncy
rhyme scheme that scans easily even on the first read. A fun book for
children. Recommended.

Citation

Lesynski, Loris., “Boy Soup or When Giant Caught Cold,” Canadian Book Review Annual Online, accessed October 14, 2024, https://cbra.library.utoronto.ca/items/show/19650.