Independent Reading Level: 1-3

Awards: N/A

"Stone Soup" is one of my favorite folktales, so it's not terribly surprising that I enjoyed this Mexican variation. A smattering of Spanish words add flavor to the text, and while I'm not sure how accurately the illustrations reflect Mexican faces, shapes, and colors, I found the warm palette and lanky silhouettes atmospheric and inviting. ( )

This is a really cute story about a small town that notices the soliders are about to pass through town and decide to hide all their food so they don't have to share. When they come to town, the man in charge asks he mayor for some food when he tells him they are poor and have none. The man in charge tells his troops they will be having cactus soup again and he can make enough for the whole town, since they have none to eat. He makes the soup and says salt and pepper would go well, an onion would go well, some meat would go well, and by the end of it there is a whole stew. ( )

Summary: When soldiers come to the town of San Miguel to ask for food, the mayor convinces the townspeople to hide their food and pretend to be poor so that the soldiers will not take it. The soldiers, seeing that the townspeople are poor, offer to make the town some "cactus soup" with the thorn of a cactus. At his recommendation, the townspeople give him more and more ingredients to put into the soup until all of the food they had been hiding is offered to share. The townspeople end up having a large party where food is shared amongst everyone!

Cactus Soup takes place in the town of San Miguel during the Mexican Revolution. The town does not want to keep feeding armies that pass through their town so the major decides to have the whole town pretend that they are poor and do not have food to feed the army. The captain of the army sees this and offers to make the town cactus soup. He intrigues the town with his cactus soup and tricks them into sharing their food for the whole town. They end up having a fiesta and the town is more willing to feed soldiers in the future. ( )