Fuse 8 n’ Kate: Stone Soup by Marcia Brown AND Jon J. Muth
Is it just me, or did someone miss a trick by not creating a new version of Stone Soup for the post-lockdown era we currently live in? Sorry, I’m just thinking out loud, but after Kate and I read two different versions of Stone Soup this week (one by Marcia Brown and one by Jon J. Muth) it seemed to me that this story is a lovely metaphor for growing connections and community after harrowing times. If anyone wants to write one now, my last name is spelled B-I-R-D (you can just put me in the acknowledgements, thanks). In the meantime, it was listener Heather D. who suggested that we consider Stone Soup as a potential Thanksgiving title in the first place. She was suggesting the Jon J. Muth, but my own husband expressed shock and horror that we had somehow not done the Marcia Brown version first. Why choose when you can do both? Today we compare and contrast a 1947 version with a 2003 version of the same story. We discuss how war in a region might easily make folks afraid of strangers, how soldiers attack their problem vs. monks, whether or not this is a technical trickster tale, and how that person who just gave salt got away with murder.
Listen to the whole show here on Soundcloud or download it through iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify, Google Play, PlayerFM, or your preferred method of podcast selection.
Show Notes:
Ah… yes. The famous Dutch bagpipe. Okay, folks. Help us out. What the heck is this?
We like the inclusion of the brave little girl. In our opinion, older books are always improved by the sudden inclusion of brave little girls.
If you read the new version, keep an eye on the cat. You could have a lot of fun figuring out where it’s going to pop up next.
As final lines go in a book, this one’s rather fascinating. They just sorta sneak it in there.
Betsy Recommends: The Marvels
Kate Recommends: My apple pie recipe, which you can see here, if you really want to:
Filed under: Fuse 8 n' Kate
About Betsy Bird
Betsy Bird is currently the Collection Development Manager of the Evanston Public Library system and a former Materials Specialist for New York Public Library. She has served on Newbery, written for Kirkus, and has done other lovely little things that she'd love to tell you about but that she's sure you'd find more interesting to hear of in person. Her opinions are her own and do not reflect those of EPL, SLJ, or any of the other acronyms you might be able to name. Follow her on BlueSky at: @fuse8.bsky.social
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I feel like I’m all over your comments this week with little additions – apologies! – but I’m catching up on a whole pile of blog reading. And thus, I’m delighted to report that the Dutch do, in fact, have their own (semi-)famous bagpipes: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doedelzak
We associate bagpipes strongly with Scotland, but they exist in various forms throughout the world. Wikipedia also has a picture of a Bulgarian gajda that looks pretty reminiscent of Marcia Brown’s illustration: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bagpipes#/media/File:Bagpipe_en.PNG
(I learned this from my Encarta CD-ROM many years ago, which – in addition to including MindMaze, a minigame that made me into the trivia nightmare I am today – had a little video of a French person playing the bagpipes. Discovering at 8 or 9 that France had bagpipes was MINDBLOWING.)
(Also, that pie recipe looks delicious – I might have to make it!)
I’m still stuck on the fact that a little CD-ROM game had a French person playing bagpipes on it. THAT is the kind of random mental image I needed today. THANK YOU!