Customer Reviews
Soup 
2005-09-15
Author: Robert Newton Peck
Number of Pages: 96
Publisher and Publication Date: Bantam Doubleday Dell Books for Young Readers; 1974
ISBN: 0-440-48186-4
Price: $9.85
The Book Called Soup
Do you like to read? If not then this is a book for you .If you like mysteries then this is not a book for you .It's about these two boys getting themselves into loads of trouble they like to go up on top of this certain hill and throw apples down at the town and see who can throw them farther then the other one.
In edition to the reason why this is such a good book because it tells you just enough to make the reader curious. The reason this is such a good book is because of all of its great character's. Something's that I've learned from this book would be not to throw apples or anything at things that you know you can't hit because it will always hit something that you don't mean to hit .Which means your heading for loads of trouble .
Further more this book is funny it keeps you laughing. This is a funny book because it will keep you laughing all the way through it. It doesn't just let you know what's going to happen it makes you think. For an example when Soup tried his aunt up to a tree and left her there in the poring rain. The reason this is so funny is because he left her there.
Next thing is that it has great characters. The reason why it has such self's into trouble. For an example when soups mother was going to give him a good thrashing because he hit the nurse with a ball. When it wasn't even his fought it was the teachers because she told him to throw the ball a certain way and it hit the nurse. Soup did get the thrashing for it because he didn't want his nurse of his teacher to get into trouble with his mother.
I would recommend this book to any age group. The reason I think this book would be good for any age group would be. It is funny and will keep you laughing all the way though I would say this book would be good for both boys and girls because it can teach everyone a lesson.
Go read this book because it is the best book ever and it will keep you wanting more and more of it. It will also keep you laughing.
Soup 2004-12-21
The book soup is a fantastec book I would give it four stars.
The first star would be for laughter, because the man characters Robert and Soup do stupped things that makes it so funny like going down a hill in a wheel barrel.
The Second star would be for cererusness like why do they rap a small rock in tinfiol.
The threerd star would before like fibbing to my parents about something I did like Robert.
The fourth star would be for the author Robert Peck, because you don't know if the author did these things or if he just made them up.
I would recamend it to any one.
Soup on Ice and the one about Halloween 
2004-12-04
I'm a retired sixth grade teacher; after lunch I'd read to my class. It was a way of settling them down and to bring non- academic books into their lives. Of course, it was also my intent to show the joy to be found in books other than those required in class. For many of the children, no one every read a book to them outside of the school environment.
As much as I tried to read with much expression and passion, I knew it was a foreign experience to just listen to a story for some of them. When other children started laughing and, on occasion, the teacher had to stop reading and wipe the tears of laughter away in order to continue (Soup books), it drew in the children who began to realize this was something to embrace.
Of course, there are others favorites with a serious bent that are also my favorites. My daughter asked me for a list of books to read to her six year old for now and in the future. I started with the humorous ones such as the above mentioned "Soup" books.
Some bad language 
2004-08-29
My daughter didn't care for this book because there were some bad words and foul language in it along with references to young children smoking . She is 8 years old but she decided to stop reading the book after this portion. It may be a good book for a less sensitive child but if you are carefully monitoring you might want to skip this one.
The good old days... 2004-06-08
were never this good. Frankly, I remember getting into trouble, but never for any of the stuff shown in this book. Not one story as much as a series of short stories, never more than a few pages long, about Robert and his friend Luther, better known as Soup. Set in Vermont in the 1920s, with lots of humor and even some sadness.
True friendship in rural Vermont 2008-03-19
In ten chapters, which each serve as a vignette, Robert Newton Peck is able to bring to life his boyhood in rural Vermont. This book shows the friendship between boys that most American males have always wanted. In these humorous and touching stories, Rob, the narrator, and Soup are caught up being in trouble because that is what simply makes their friendship and life so much fun. There are some great teachings in these pages on generosity, forgiveness, justice, courage, honesty, love, and responsibility. Each chapter is only about six to eight pages long and is introduced with one of Charles C. Gehm's excellent drawings. These individual chapters are the perfect type to be read to children at bedtime or on wet and cloudy weekend afternoons.
I even enjoyed it 2007-12-28
My sister-in-law said that she used to read these books. She bought a couple for my son for Christmas and I had to read them. They are humorous and a good read!
Wimsical and amusing 2007-02-18
I thoroughly enjoyed reading this again after nearly twenty years since the first time. It reminds the reader of a simpler time in all of our lives when the biggest problems we faced were bullies, cute girls and our parents. I suggest this book to both children and parents alike as an excellent family read.
Wonderful first book in a wonderful series 2007-01-05
I found this book somewhat by chance in my local library. It looked interesting...sort of like a modern version of Tom Sawyer, and that's exactly what it was. Boys in particular will love these books, because they chronicle the life of boys as it really exists - dirt, worms, clubhouses, alternately loving/hating girls, playing pranks, and just generally getting into and out of various and sundry mischief.
"Soup" is essentially an autobiographical account of author Robert Newton Peck's experiences growing up in rural Vermont in the 1920s. While he has no doubt greatly embellished these accounts to make them larger than life in these books, they are enormously fun and charming nonetheless. The young Peck (Rob in the stories) recounts life with his best pal "Soup", so named because he is embarrassed by his real name (Luther) and only comes running when his mother makes the dinner call of "Soup's On!" Hence, his nickname Soup became a permanent ID and also the namesake for this wonderful series of books. Soup is the mischievious ringleader in most of the misadventures, with Rob the younger and more naive sidekick.
My son loved these stories as I read them aloud to him. For road trips, we would find some books from the "Soup" series on tape and listen to those, and they invariably made the miles go faster.
As a parent, I loved the stories not only because they are hysterically funny, but because they are nostalgic and take me back to my own childhood when the pace of life was slower, things were simpler, and children were somehow less worldly wise, without the craving for 24/7 electronic stimulation. Sigh.
Peck imparts a wholesomeness to us in these books and my child never complained that the stories were sappy or lame. We both loved the recurring characters from book to book, such as the boys' teacher, and the portly Miss Bolund, the school nurse who shows up in her tiny, highly unreliable car at regular intervals. There's also the school bully - who happens to be a girl - and can whump just about any boy in the county.
Very occassionally (as in once or twice) there is content that some parents may find slightly objectionable - such as the boys experimenting with smoking or swearing. However, as a christian parent I never found any of these things problematic because the context was always quite clear that what the boys were doing was wrong and the book never comes across as condoning such behavior. It's more like the stories we've heard of kids who try smoking, only to end up turning green and vowing never to touch the foul things again. So, think in terms of Mark Twain...not something that tries to be "hip" by being PG-13, or going to the other extreme and bending over backwards to be politically correct and preachy.
In summary, I whole-heartedly recommend these books. There are a dozen or more in the series. They build on a fine tradition first given to us by Mark Twain in "Tom Sawyer" and "Huckleberry Finn," portraying boyhood the way it was and forever should be.
A children's classic 2005-11-09
Peck relates growing up in rural/small town Vermont with a best friend who gets him into lots of trouble. Humor and pranks abound in between lessons learned.
