Pinch and Dash Make Soup
Michael Daley, Illustrated by Thomas Yezerski

Charlesbridge Publishing
February 1, 2012 / ISBN 978-1580893473
Picture book, cooking (ages 5 and up)
Amazon

Reviewed by Bob Walch

This short chapter book features Pinch and Dash making a pot of soup with some humorous results. Pinch is hungry and since he doesn't want to cook, he goes over to his friend Dash's house to see what he is doing. Dash loves to cook and is always making something.

Sure enough, Dash is making a pot of "skinny soup". What's that you ask? It is soup with not much in it! To give the soup more substance and flavor, Pinch goes home and returns with a potato, spinach, and some cheese. Once added to the mixture, the soup isn't "skinny" anymore. But it still lacks flavor.

Now the two friends have a disagreement. Pinch wants to add pepper and hot sauce to thsimmering kettle, but Dash says, "This is my stove. I say no pepper! I say no hot sauce!"

How Pinch reacts to his friend's insistence that the soup is now "finished" makes for a humorous ending to this picture book that is ideal for youngsters who are beginning to read by themselves. The sentences are short, there's lots of dialogue and with word repetition and a manageable vocabulary, this is a story any child should be able to master with just a little assistance from mom or dad.