Product Description

Cat, Duck and Squirrel live in an old white cabin, with a pumpkin patch in the garden. Every day Cat slices up some pumpkin, Squirrel stirs in some water and Duck tips in some salt to make the perfect pumpkin soup...Until the day Duck wants to do the stirring...This is a funny, rhythmical story about friendship and sharing, with fabulous animal characters, illustrated in glowing autumnal colours with a brilliant CD featuring music and sound effects!

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #16319 in Books
• Published on: 2007-10-25
• Original language: English
• Binding: Audio CD

Amazon.co.uk Review
Three friends, Duck, Squirrel and Cat, join together every evening to make pumpkin soup. Each has their own very important part to play in the process and the soup is always delicious. Then, one day, Duck decides he wants to stir the soup instead of adding the salt. This leads to a tremendous quarrel which ends with Duck leaving in a huff. At first Squirrel and Cat are unconcerned by his absence, but as time goes by they start to worry about what might have happened to their friend.

This is a witty, observant and highly original tale about the ups and downs of friendship by award-winning author-illustrator Helen Cooper. As in The Bear Under the Stairs and The Baby Who Wouldn't Go to Bed, Helen Cooper has created a magical picture book from a familiar childhood occurrence. --Philippa Reece

From the Back Cover
What's cooking in the old white cabin? Pumpkin soup, the best you've ever tasted.

Deep in the woods in an old white cabin, three friends make their soup the same way every day. Everyone has his own job. Everyone seems happy. Until the day that the littlest one, Duck, decides it's his turn to stir the pumpkin soup. And that's when the quarrelling starts...

In this funny, observant and highly original story, three animal companions discover the ups and downs of friendship and sharing.

About the Author
HELEN COOPER is the only illustrator ever to win the highly prestigious Kate Greenaway Award for two consecutive books: THE BABY WHO WOULDN'T GO TO BED, 1996 and PUMPKIN SOUP, 1998. She has had several other successful titles published by Doubleday including LITTLE MONSTER DID IT! and THE BEAR UNDER THE STAIRS, which won the Smarties Young Judges' Award in 1994. Both are now perennial favourites in nurseries, schools, libraries and bookshops. Helen is married to author/illustrator Ted Dewan. They have one daughter and live in Oxford.

Customer Reviews

`Cat, Squirrel and Duck are three friends who make pumpkin soup together every day.....
they always do it the same way, until little Duck thinks he's got a better idea.....'

I was captivated by the book corner at a recent primary class I visited, in connection with helping young children cook as part of my course.
`Pumpkin Soup' was the source book and `the corner' was alive with the green and gold shades of Autumn, and pictures/poems about the three lovable characters, with some amazing attention to detail even down to the bag-pipes!
It proved an excellent platform for a project and the children couldn't hide their delight in acting out their little pieces - it sure brought a tear to the eye.
I particularly noticed the flow of lively replacements for the word, `said', which the children really emphasised with apparent ease - e.g. `squeaked', `snapped', `stormed', `scoffed', `muttered', `sniffed', `wept', `whispered' and `yelped', and these words followed through into the written work too.

The 32 high quality page book is a beautifully illustrated, well written tale with a distinct message - sharing and compromise - and don't we all know how difficult that can be at certain ages?

Simply delightful book and guaranteed to be a regular choice from the bookshelf!

Warm. cuddly and perfect!
I'm a children's librarian and I treasure this book. And my "story-timers" agree. The illustrations are beautiful--a real visual treat--and the story, how the best of friends can sometimes have disagreements, is so sweetly told even the youngest children are entertained. It's simply a wonderful book and Helen Cooper belongs up there in the Beatrice Potter pantheon.

Good story supplemented with a visual feast
It was the front cover of this book that first caught my eye at our son's book fair at his local school. The pages of this book do not disappoint either. The illustrations are quite stunning, and have a tremendous warmth about them. As a parent, I am going to enjoy reading it for many years to come!