Boy Soup (Loris Lesynski, author. Michael Martchenko, illustrator. Annick Press, 2008)

Poor Giant is sick, sick, sick. Many of us can relate in this cold and flu season we are presently enduring. Giant’s medical guide recommends none other than Boy Soup to ease his symptoms. He promptly sets off to find the soup’s key ingredient, and easily finds five boys–and Kate. Thank goodness for Kate, as it is she who concocts a way to save them all from the bottom of the Giant’s soup pot (I love the quiet ‘girl power’ theme in this book). There are plenty of chuckles to be had as you study Giant’s facial expressions as well as the finer details of Martchenko’s illustrations. Lesynski’s rhyming text is scrumptious right to the last letter. My family discovered this picture book by chance at the library many months ago and my three year-old has asked to borrow it repeatedly since. This book would be worth permanently stocking on your bookshelf; it could be read all winter long, and then some.