EVERY COLOR SOUP

Hurley cooks up a big pot of soup, introducing young children to the colorful veggies, kitchen equipment, and cooking techniques that bring it to table.

Opening in a lush garden foreshadowing the soup’s ingredients, the narrative shifts to the kitchen: “We are making Every Color Soup. / We’ll need… // purple.” That single, final word rests on bright white space, near a page-straddling eggplant with a green stem cap. As new color names are introduced on succeeding pages, the number of depicted ingredients increases, providing the opportunity to count objects from one to nine. (That is, until the pepper mill appears, scattering scores of “black” pepper specks.) The concept “clear” defines an array of seven glass measuring cups of broth, while “blue” is paired with a jar of Le Puys lentils. At “chop” and “drop,” Hurley’s signature Photoshopped pictures reveal the brown hands of an adult (with vibrant, pink-polished fingernails) and a child. One double-page spread tips vertically to show the soup pot bubbling on the gas stove, steam rising against the blue-and-white tile backsplash. A final “yum” appears alongside an overhead view of a bowl of the finished soup atop a red-and-white–checked tablecloth. Hurley appends a visual glossary of the ingredients and a simple recipe for Every Color Soup (with adult help mandated).

Lovely and playful for storytimes and family sharing.