Mouse Soup

Summary

Mouse Soup is a story with four smaller stories inside it. A mouse is sitting under a tree reading a book when a weasel pounces on him, carries him home and puts him into a cooking pot to make mouse soup. Quickly the mouse warns that the soup will not taste good without stories in it. The hungry weasel has no stories of his own, so he lets the mouse tell four. In "Bees and the Mud," a mouse finds a bees' nest on his head, and the bees mean to stay in their new home. He wades into a mud puddle, telling them that each step deeper is another room of the house, and when he lies down in the mud as if going to bed, the bees decide they want no part of so wet a house and fly away. In "Two Large Stones," two stones who have sat on one side of a hill for a very long time wonder what is on the other side. A bird tells them it is a wonderful place, and they grow sad that they can never move. Long afterward a little mouse climbs over the hill and tells them the other side looks just like theirs, and the stones are glad to be where they are. In "The Crickets," a mouse trying to sleep calls out to a cricket singing outside. Each time she complains, the cricket mistakes her meaning and brings more crickets to play, until she shouts them all away. In "The Thorn Bush," a policeman finds an old lady crying because her thorn bush is dying. He waters it, it blossoms into roses, and she thanks him with flowers. Then the mouse tells the weasel to fetch mud, bees, stones, crickets and thorns to put the stories into the soup. While the weasel is away gathering them, the mouse climbs out of the pot and runs home. Lobel wrote and illustrated the book, and Harper & Row published it in 1977 as an I Can Read book.

Plot or Argument

• The weasel's pot

  A weasel catches a mouse who is reading under a tree and puts him into a pot. The mouse says the soup needs stories to taste good and offers to tell them, since the weasel has none.

• Bees and the Mud

  A mouse with a bees' nest on his head leads the bees deeper and deeper into a mud puddle, calling each level a new room, until he lies down in the mud and the bees abandon their soggy home.

• Two Large Stones

  Two stones on a hillside long to know what lies over the hill. A bird's praise of the far side makes them unhappy, but a mouse who has been there tells them it is just like their own side, and they are content.

• The Crickets

  A mouse who wants to sleep keeps asking a singing cricket to stop, and he keeps misunderstanding her and inviting more and more crickets, until her final shout sends them all away.

• The Thorn Bush

  A policeman stops to help an old lady who is weeping over her dying thorn bush. He waters it, it bursts into roses, and she gives him flowers in thanks.

• The empty pot

  The mouse sends the weasel out for mud, bees, stones, crickets and thorns to put the stories into the soup. While the weasel is gone, the mouse escapes from the pot and runs home.

Characters

• The mouse, protagonist and storyteller

  A reading mouse who keeps calm in the weasel's pot and saves himself by telling four stories.

• The weasel, antagonist

  A hungry cook who wants mouse soup, has no stories of his own, and believes everything the mouse tells him.

• The bees, characters in Bees and the Mud

  Bees who settle on a mouse's head and leave when their new house turns muddy.

• The two large stones, characters in Two Large Stones

  Stones who cannot move and wonder what lies on the far side of their hill.

• The bird, character in Two Large Stones

  A traveler who tells the stones the other side of the hill is wonderful.

• The cricket, character in The Crickets

  A singer who hears every complaint as a request for more music.

• The old lady, character in The Thorn Bush

  An elderly mouse who loves her thorn bush and cries when it begins to die.

• The policeman, character in The Thorn Bush

  A kind officer who waters the thorn bush and is rewarded with roses.

Lessons

• A clear head in danger

  The mouse is already in the pot when he speaks up. He does not cry or struggle; he thinks of the one thing the weasel lacks, stories, and offers it. Children can learn that staying calm and thinking is often the way out of trouble.

  • Where was the mouse when he started telling stories?
  • Why did the weasel let him tell them?
  • What can you do when you are scared, instead of panicking?

• Stories have power

  Every story the mouse tells is a small trick or puzzle, and the whole book shows a mouse saving his life by storytelling. Stories can teach, amuse and even rescue, and a child who knows many stories has something worth sharing.

  • Which of the four stories did you like best, and why?
  • How did the mouse in Bees and the Mud use words to trick the bees?
  • Why do you think the weasel had no stories of his own?

• Content where you are

  The two large stones are unhappy only after the bird tells them how wonderful the other side of the hill is. When the mouse tells them it is just the same, they are glad again. The story teaches children to be thankful for their own place instead of always longing for somewhere else.

  • Why were the stones sad after the bird talked to them?
  • What did the little mouse tell them about the other side of the hill?
  • Is there something you wished for that turned out to be like what you already had?

• Listening carefully

  In The Crickets, the mouse says she cannot sleep, and the cricket thinks she wants more music. Each misunderstanding makes things worse. The story is funny, but it shows how important it is to listen to what someone really means.

  • What did the cricket do each time the mouse called out?
  • How did the mouse finally get some quiet?
  • Have you ever misunderstood what someone wanted?

Context

Mouse Soup comes from the middle of Lobel's long run of I Can Read books for Harper & Row, between Owl at Home (1975) and Grasshopper on the Road (1978). Like the old fable collections, its tiny tales use talking animals, and even talking stones, to show folly, wit and kindness without spelling out a moral. Its frame, in which a captive tells stories to escape death, is one of the oldest devices in storytelling.

Composition

Lobel wrote and illustrated the book himself, drawing the frame story and the four inner tales with the same small, finely hatched animal figures as his other early readers. Mouse Soup is a companion in subject to his earlier Mouse Tales (1972), in which a father mouse tells seven bedtime stories to his sons. Harper & Row published Mouse Soup in March 1977.

Reception

Kirkus Reviews called it small but satisfying and praised its gentle resonance. It has stayed in print as an I Can Read book and is often used in early-grade classrooms. Lobel himself read it for a 1978 Scholastic recording, and in 1992 it was adapted as a stop-motion musical film for the children's television series Long Ago and Far Away, with Buddy Hackett as the voice of the mouse.

Comparisons

• aesops-fables

  Lobel's inner tales are fable-sized, and the frame story turns the old pattern of a small animal outwitting a stronger one into a plot; Two Large Stones in particular reads like a fable about contentment.

• the-canterbury-tales

  Chaucer's pilgrims and Lobel's mouse both tell stories inside a framing story; the frame in Mouse Soup is life or death, and the tales themselves become the mouse's escape.

• the-tale-of-peter-rabbit

  Both are stories of a small animal who narrowly escapes ending up in a cook's pot; Peter escapes by running and luck, the mouse by thinking and talking.

• frog-and-toad-are-friends

  Lobel's best-known I Can Read book uses the same short, patterned sentences, but its stories are about friendship, while Mouse Soup's are about wit and escape.

• grasshopper-on-the-road

  Published a year later, Lobel's Grasshopper also strings together short encounters with odd small creatures, each a little parable about how to live.

Quotes

For Students

A reading companion for classical Christian high school students. See the student guide.

Reading Guide

Watch for

• The book the mouse is reading at the very beginning. Think about why it matters that he is a reader.
• How the mouse in Bees and the Mud talks the bees out of his head, one step at a time.
• What the bird says about the far side of the hill and what the little mouse says later.
• The list of things the mouse sends the weasel to find at the end. See how each one matches a story.

Key terms and names

Weasel

A long, thin hunting animal. The weasel in this book wants to cook the mouse into soup.

Pot

A big cooking pan for soup. The mouse sits in it the whole time he tells his stories.

Bees' nest

The home that bees make. In the first story the bees try to make their home on a mouse's head.

Cricket

A small insect that chirps at night by rubbing its wings. The cricket in the third story thinks his song is a gift.

Thorn bush

A prickly plant. The old lady's thorn bush turns out to be a rose bush once it is watered.

Seminar Questions

1. Comprehension What was the mouse doing when the weasel caught him?
2. Comprehension How did the mouse get rid of the bees on his head?
3. Comprehension What happened to the thorn bush after the policeman watered it?
4. Interpretation Why did the weasel believe that stories would make his soup taste better?
5. Interpretation The bird and the little mouse told the stones different things about the other side of the hill. Who do you think was right?
6. Interpretation How is the mouse in the pot like the mouse with the bees on his head?
7. Big Question The mouse saved himself with stories. Why are stories so important to people?

Faith Connections

• Matthew 10:16 (Scripture)

  Jesus tells His disciples to be wise as serpents and harmless as doves. The mouse outwits the weasel without hurting him; the weasel's troubles come from his own hunger and foolishness.

• Psalm 124:7 (Scripture)

  Our soul has escaped like a bird from the snare of the fowlers; the snare is broken. The mouse slipping out of the empty pot gives children a small, happy picture of rescue.

• Philippians 4:11 (Scripture)

  Paul says he has learned to be content in whatever state he is. The two large stones learn the same lesson when they hear that the far side of the hill is just like their own.

• Isaiah 35:1 (Scripture)

  The prophet says the desert shall blossom as the rose. The dry, dying thorn bush that bursts into roses after the policeman waters it echoes that promise of new life.

Logic and Rhetoric

Central argument: The weasel is bigger and stronger, and the mouse is already in the pot. But the weasel wants a good soup and has no stories, and the mouse has many. So the mouse makes stories part of the recipe, and the weasel's own wish for a better dinner sends him away from the pot. A quick mind and a store of stories can beat strength.

Rhetorical device: frame narrative. The four tales are told by the mouse inside the story of the weasel's kitchen, and the ending ties them together when the mouse asks for an ingredient from each tale.

Debate: Resolved: The two large stones were happier after the mouse's report than they were before the bird came.

Writing Prompts

Essay: Tell how the mouse got out of the weasel's pot. Say what he said first and what he did at the end.

Comparison with The Tale of Peter Rabbit: Peter Rabbit and the mouse both almost ended up being cooked. Tell how each one got away, and say which escape was smarter.

Medical Lens

No medical content. The dangers are a predator's cooking pot, bee stings and a sleepless night, all handled as comedy, and the only remedy in the book is water for a thirsty thorn bush.

Creative Prompts

• Classroom

  Bring a big pot to class and let each child drop in a paper slip with a one-sentence story, then pull them out and read them aloud as a batch of Story Soup.

• Fiction

  Write a fifth story the mouse could have told the weasel, and say what ingredient the weasel would have to go out and find for it.

• Dialogue

  Act out The Crickets: one child is the sleepy mouse calling from her bed, and a growing group of children are crickets who keep misunderstanding her.

• Classroom

  Draw the two large stones and both sides of their hill, one side as the bird described it and one as the mouse found it.

Further Reading

• Mouse Tales, Arnold Lobel

  Lobel's earlier I Can Read book (1972), seven bedtime stories told by Papa Mouse.

• Fables, Arnold Lobel

  Lobel's original animal fables with morals, winner of the 1981 Caldecott Medal.

• Owl at Home, Arnold Lobel

• Frog and Toad Are Friends, Arnold Lobel