Here is a digital trailer for SOUL MOON SOUP created by graduate student Jennifer Boyd.
Here is a readers guide for SOUL MOON SOUP created by graduate student Kathey Smith.
Bibliography
Johnson, Lindsay L. 2002. Soul Moon Soup. Asheville, N.C.: Front Street.
ISBN 1886910871
Recommended Age Levels grade levels 6-8
Summary of Book
Author Lindsay Johnson used a free verse style to tell the story of a young girl who has parents that are not dependable. When the father abandons her and her mother her mother works hard to make end meet but is not successful. They find themselves homeless and living from shelter to shelter and the belongings in a suitcase which is lost. The girl’s mother seeks help by sending her to live with her grandmother whom she has never met. The young girl is worried about her granny mother’s behavior and if her mother will be back. While living with her grandmother she makes a friend who helps her not to lose her dream of drawing. She also discovers family secrets that her look at her mother in a different light when she returns.
Review Excepts
“A homeless child finds a measure of inner security, and mends fences with her weak, trouble mother, in this first novel, written in verse.”
-Booklist
“Phoebe’s story is told through a series of poems that elegantly capture the smells, noises, and fears that come with being on the streets and with living at Full Moon Lake with her grandmother. This is a wonderfully crafted book.” - Children’s Literature
“Soul Moon Soup is a sensitively told tale about homelessness and its devastating effect on children. Written in free-verse, it is the story of Phoebe, an eleven-year-old girl with a talent for drawing and eyes “wide-open… like two hungry mouths.” - The Five Owls
Awards/Honors Received
¬ Lee Bennett Hopkins Promising Poet Award, 2004
¬ Best Book- Best Children’s Book of the Year, 2003 : Bank Street College of Education United States
¬ YSLSA Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Adults Readers. 2003: American Library Association- YALSA; United States
Questions to Ask Before Reading
Invite students to discuss the following questions prior to reading Soul Moon Soup.
¬ Show students the cover of the book and the title ask students What may you conclude by just looking at the cover and the title?
¬ Do you know what the term homeless means?
¬ What are some ways that people may become homeless?
¬ How do you think people feel being in this situation especially children?
Suggestion for Reading Poems Aloud
¬ “Expression” invite the students participate in reading parts and over exaggerate lines which reveals an expressive thought by Phoebe or her mother.
¬ “Reflection” have students read Remembering Daddy p.16
by choral reading and think back about someone that they may remember something special about or just miss their present.
¬ “Readers Theater” invites students to choose parts and participate in reading aloud.
Follow up Activities
Writing
¬ Students may read “On the Job with Mama” p. 19 and write about a time when you have gone to your parents, grandparents, or any other relative or friends job and share what you did and how you felt, or write about how you think it would be if you have not gone to a job with an adult.
¬ In Phoebe’s story she meets a friend and this friend helps her gain her confidence back to draw. Write about a time your confidence needed rebuilding so you could do something you like and tell who helped you and how.
¬ Phoebe really misses her dad. Think about someone you really miss write them a letter explaining how and why you miss them.
Math
¬ In this poem Phoebe’s mother had a hard time making end meet, she worked cleaning houses, research the salary of house keepers and maids for the present, five years ago, ten years ago, and fifteen years ago. Try to draw a conclusion of what Phoebes mother’s salary could have been.
¬ Discuss the symmetry of the picture on the cover.
¬ Phoebe loves her mother and misses her a great deal; she had a hard time waiting for her return. Think about someone you are waiting to return or think about if you or someone you love is waiting to leave make a calendar and use tally marks to mark the days until they return or the day until you leave.
Social Studies
¬ In the poem Phoebe and her mother stayed form shelter to shelter. Research different homeless shelters in the area and create a service project – example (donating coats and socks) to help homeless people.
¬ Create a list of statistics of homeless people in your area, compare to a nearby city.
¬ Create an organization at your school or in your classroom that offers resources to homeless children/families at you school (name the organization, list resources offered).
Art
¬ “Rearranging the Pieces” p. 114- Read aloud the 1st paragraph and have students draw what they visualize in their heads from the words they hear.
¬ Phoebe thought art was important, she loved to draw. Pp.62-63 How does art make our lives better? Make a collage answering this question.
¬ Draw yourself with two faces like the cover of the book and share your explanation for your facial explanation.
Science
¬ Phoebe did not have what she wanted or needed for her drawings. Sometimes in life we may not have what we want or need at that moment so often we must work with we have. Phoebe was in the country what are something she could have used to create are work or drawings. (rocks, mud, pine cones etc...) Find some of the items and create a product.
¬ Research materials that will serve as paint (flowers, food, juice etc.) discuss the process to transform into liquid with color to use for painting.
¬ Make footwear impressions this make various designs
http://www.education.com/activity/science/page4/
Related Web Sites
Nation Coalition for the Homeless
http://www.nationalhomeless.org/
This website if full of help information, resources, and other links that include fact sheets, advocacy, and an opportunity to donate.
Helplines and websites Homeless Link
http://www.homeless.org.uk
Explore this site it is full of information to help stop and prevent homelessness as well as where to get help.
Facts about homelessness DoSomething.org
http://www.dosomething.org/TeensforJeans
This site provides information about starting a jean drive for homeless teens.
Related Books
Fiction about homelessness
Ackerman, Karen. 1993. The Leaves in October. Random House Children’s Books.
Banks, Lynne Reid. 2002. Alice by Accident. Harper Trophy.
Gunning, Monica. 2004. A Shelter in Our Car. Ill. By Elaine Pedlor. Children’s Book Press.
Nonfiction about homelessness
Wallace B. Barbara. 2001. Secret in St. Something. Books For Young Readers.
Whelam, Clora. 2000. Homeless Bird. Harper Collins Publishers.
Youme, Selavi. 2004. That is Life: A Haitian Story of Hope. Cinco Puntos Press.
Poems/Poetry
Grimes, Nikki. 2006. Thanks A Million. Ill. By Cozbi A. Cabrera. Amistad.
Peters, Andrew Fusek. 2001. Out of Order: between-age poem. Ill. By Clive Goodyear.
Viorst, Judith. 1995. Sad Underwear and Other Complications More Poems for Children and their Parents. Ill. By Richard Hull. Antheneum Books for Young Readers.
About the Author
Lindsay Lee Johnson grew up in a family of storytellers. She thinks of words as her first and most enduring playthings. Ms. Johnson has worked as a newspaper reporter, editor, community education instructor, visiting author in schools, and free-lance writer of everything from business brochures to greeting cards and fortune cookies, but her heart has always belonged to fiction. She has written award-winning stories for adults and children and has published three books for children: Hurricane Henrietta, A Week With Zeke & Zach, and Soul Moon Soup. Ms. Johnson writes from her home in the east central Minnesota countryside, where she lives with her husband, four cats, and assorted other animals. She and her husband have twin daughters and four grandchildren.
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