Granny Torrelli Makes Soup

Sharon Creech (author)

Mique Moriuchi (illustrations)

HarperCollins, USA: 2003; 141pp

ISBN: 074757197X

Genre: realistic fiction

Issues: disability (vision), family, friendship

Rosie is furious with her best friend, Bailey. When Granny Torrelli comes over, however, she tells her, ‘when you are angry with someone, so angry you are thinking hateful things, so angry maybe you want to punch them, then you should think of the good things about them, and the nice things they have said, and why you liked them in the first place.'

Which is all very well, thinks Rosie, but it doesn't really solve her problem. So Granny Torrelli makes soup. Soup solves all problems. The process of preparing it gives the cooks a chance to talk. Granny Torrelli is good at talking, although she also has an uncanny instinct that means she can hone in on what Rosie is really thinking and feeling. Somehow, between making soup and listening to Granny Torrelli's stories about when she was a child, Rosie comes to understand the reason for her fight with Bailey, and what she needs to do about it.

This is a truly delightful narrative told in first-person by Rosie. The wonderfully rhythmic writing catches the nuances of Rosie's angry thoughts, and the idiosyncratic phrasing that evokes the spoken English of those whose first language is Italian. There is plenty of food for thought here, in more ways than one. Granny Torrelli's wise words about the true nature of friendship and the destructive power of jealousy will reach the hearts of many readers - and listeners, as this is a book that is begging to be read aloud.