Cactus Soup

Bibliography
Kimmel, Eric A. 2004. Cactus soup. Ill. by Phil Huling New York: Marshall Cavendish. ISBN 0761451552

Plot SummaryBased off the folktale “Stone Soup” or “Nail Soup”, this story is set in the town of San Miguel. A troop of soldiers is riding toward the town and the people are not pleased with the idea of them eating their food. An army travels on its stomach, after all. The townspeople decide to hide their food, change into torn, dirty clothing, and smear their faces with mud to appear poor to the soldiers. The captain of the army is not deterred when the mayor claims that the town is poor. His solution is to make cactus soup.

What is cactus soup? Well, it is quite simple. All one needs is a kettle of water, a stirring spoon, plenty of firewood, and one cactus thorn. One cactus thorn will make plenty of cactus soup! Every time the captain checks the soup, he mentions how spices or food would improve the flavor. “Why ask for what you don’t have?” But the town provides everything the captain mentions. The townspeople go as far as to say that the food was rotten, spoiled, or moldy. In the end, the entire town and soldiers dine on cactus soup and celebrate with a fiesta.

Critical Analysis
The author chose to write this version of the folktale during the Mexican Revolution. This fact is not stated in the book, but in the author’s note at the end. “...the common people of Mexico struggled to take back political and economic power from the wealthy classes…” In this book, soldiers approach a wealthy town with empty stomachs. The townspeople, led by the mayor, agree to shun the soldiers by pretending to be poor and without food. In theory, these soldiers are fighting for equality from the sort of people that live in the small town. When they are denied sustenance, the captain of the soldiers tricks the townspeople by making cactus soup. By repeating the simple refrain, “But it’s fine the way it is. Why ask for what you don’t have?” the captain tricks the townspeople into revealing hidden spices and food. A fiesta ensues soon after. The soldiers are like “the common people of Mexico” that struggle to eat as they fight for their people. They have to take back power from the wealthy by making cactus soup and tricking the townspeople into providing flavor to the soup.

Since Cactus Soup takes place during the Mexican Revolution, it is fitting that many Spanish terms are sprinkled throughout the book. Unlike The Three Little Tamales, also by Kimmel, when the terms are used in the book a definition is not provided nearby. Instead, a glossary is provided for readers at the end of the book.

The illustrations were rendered in watercolor and inks on watercolor paper. The colors are rich and heavy in hues of oranges, yellows, and reds. The people and animals are drawn with much exaggeration. The first page, for example, displays a horse with very long legs but not much in the way of a midsection. Later in the book, when the captain has learned that the town is poor and they are going to have to make cactus soup again, the captain is pictured as bow-legged. His knees and calves appear to go in different directions from each other. The mayor of the town is comical looking with thin hair, bushy eyebrows, a luscious mustache, and pointy nose.

While most of the exaggerated illustrations go well with this story of deception, there is one disturbing image. The townspeople are putting on “torn, dirty clothes, smeared mud on their faces, and tried their best to look like poor, hungry people.” The page on the left is red with a window into the home of a family changing. The next page has a yellow background with a father and son putting the mud on their face. The stone pavement is beneath their bare feet. The entire page has red splatters over the drawings. Since this was set during the Mexican Revolution, are these pages supposed to represent the millions of people that lost their lives during this time? Is this single page with splatters supposed to hint to a more mature reader that this time was more than fun and cactus soup?

Review Excerpt(s)
PUBLISHER”S WEEKLY: “Kimmel, ever the master storyteller, incorporates especially vivid cadences in the words of the wily, world-weary captain; but it's Huling who makes the story sing. His comically exaggerated characters garner laughs without shedding their humanity, while his swooping, elongated lines and radiant colors recall the sun-drenched earthiness and high spirits of early 20th- century Mexican art.”
KIRKUS REVIEWS: “A good choice for those seeking variants of Stone Soup, or books with Mexican themes.”

Connections
This could be used for a procedural text activity. Students can write a how-to on creating their own version of cactus soup.
Students can study cacti. Do all cactus have thorns? Where are the cactus with thorns found? The teacher can bring in different kind of cactus to study.
Lower grade levels can have a cactus theme and read these during that time.
Writing prompt: How have the townspeople of San Miguel changed since the visit from the soldiers?
This book can be an introduction to a unit on the Mexican Revolution. Students can study the clothing, the colors, and the events happening in Cactus Soup. More research can be done on Pancho Villa and Emiliano Zapata, who are mentioned at the end of this book.
Provide different versions of Stone Soup or Nail Soup for students to compare and contrast. This also helps students see how stories are similar over different cultures.