Mouse Soup facts for kids
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Cover
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| Author | Arnold Lobel |
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| Illustrator | Arnold Lobel |
| Series | I Can Read! |
| Genre | Picture book |
| Publisher | Harper & Row |
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Publication date
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1977 |
| Pages | 64 pp. |
| ISBN | 978-0-06-023967-1 |
| OCLC | 2542419 |
Mouse Soup is a fun picture book from 1977 by the famous writer and artist Arnold Lobel. It starts with a simple sentence: "A mouse sat under a tree." The story is about a clever mouse who needs to trick a hungry weasel. The weasel wants to turn the mouse into "Mouse Soup"! To escape, the mouse tells four exciting stories. He talks about Bees and the Mud, Two Large Stones, The Crickets, and The Thorn Bush. He even tells the weasel to put these things into his soup! In the end, the mouse gets away, and the weasel learns a big lesson.
Contents
The Mouse's Tricky Plan
A little mouse leaves his cozy house to read a book under a tree. Suddenly, a weasel catches him! The weasel takes the mouse back to his home. He plans to make "Mouse Soup" for dinner.
Just as the weasel is about to put the mouse into the cooking pot, the clever mouse speaks up. He tells the weasel that the soup won't taste good without some stories in it. The weasel is very hungry, but he agrees. He lets the mouse tell him four stories to make the soup better.
Story 1: The Bees and the Mud
In the first story, a mouse is walking along when a bee nest falls right on his head! The bees think his head is their new home. The mouse tries to get them to leave, but they like it there.
So, the mouse comes up with a smart plan. He decides to go into a mud hole. He pretends the mud hole is his house. He goes deeper and deeper, calling each level a different room. The bees still like their "new house." Finally, the mouse puts his whole head under the mud. He calls this his "bed." The bees finally give up and fly away. The mouse can then go home and take a nice bath.
Story 2: Two Large Stones
Next, the mouse tells a story about two big stones sitting on a hill. They wonder what is on the other side of the hill. They cannot move, so they ask a bird to check for them.
The bird flies over and comes back. It tells the stones about tall buildings and busy cities on the other side. This makes the stones very sad because they can't see these things. A hundred years pass. Then, a mouse comes along. The stones ask him to check the other side of the hill. The mouse returns and tells them it looks exactly the same as their side. This makes the stones happy! They are glad they are not missing anything. But they still wonder if the bird or the mouse was right.
Story 3: The Crickets
In the third story, a cricket starts singing loudly in the middle of the night. But his singing wakes up a lady mouse who is trying to sleep. Each time she asks him to stop, the cricket thinks she wants more music! So, he calls all his cricket friends over.
Soon, many crickets are singing, making a huge noise. The lady mouse finally shouts at them to go away! The cricket is surprised and wonders why she didn't say so before. After the crickets leave, the mouse goes back to bed. But now, the new quietness is also a bit strange!
Story 4: The Thorn Bush
For his last story, the mouse tells about a police mouse. The police mouse visits an old lady mouse who is crying. She shows him a thorn bush growing out of her chair. The police mouse offers to remove it so she can sit down.
But the old lady mouse explains she isn't crying about sitting. She is crying because she loves the bush, and it is dying. The police mouse quickly tells her to pour some water on the thorn bush. She does, and it grows into a beautiful bunch of roses! To thank the police mouse, the old lady mouse gives him a kiss and some roses as a thank you gift.
After telling all his stories, the mouse tells the weasel what to do. He says the weasel needs to gather things from the stories to make the soup taste good. These things are: a bee's nest, some mud, two stones, ten crickets, and a thorn bush.
The weasel leaves his house without closing the door. This lets the mouse escape and follow the weasel from a distance. The mouse watches as the weasel struggles to find all the items. The weasel gets stung by bees, gets covered in sticky mud, struggles with two heavy stones, jumps to catch crickets, and gets pricked by a thorn bush.
Finally, the weasel returns home, thinking he will have a tasty soup. But he sees the empty pot and realizes he has been tricked! The mouse, meanwhile, hurries back to his own house. After having some dinner, he finishes reading his book.
Other Versions of Mouse Soup
Audio Recording
In 1978, a company called Scholastic Records made a record of Arnold Lobel reading the Mouse Soup story. It had music by Albert Hague.
Stop Motion Film
In 1992, Mouse Soup was made into a 26-minute musical stop motion animated film. Churchill Films created it, and John Clark Matthews directed it. The famous actor Buddy Hackett was the voice of the Mouse in the film.
