Pajama Press

“It’s soup day at a Kenyan schoolhouse. While the teachers stir the broth, the children gather vegetables from the community garden. All except for one. Little Kioni is looking for her missing herd of goats, only to discover that they have followed her to school and are now wreaking havoc in the garden.  A frustrated Kioni announces, ‘These pesky goats make me so mad… I’d like to put them in the soup.’ This statement turns out to be a ‘eureka’ moment in that the wayward goats do make a contribution to the soup… with their milk!

Alma Fullerton has incorporated the perfect ingredients to create an engaging and charming picture book. With its conversational tone, including a dash of questions and exclamations, Community Soup makes for an excellent read-aloud. One section is similar to ‘Mary Had a Little Lamb,’ which adds to the fun: ‘Kioni has a herd of goats/with hair of calico./And everywhere Kioni goes,/those goats are sure to —/ GO!’

Fullerton’s colourful three-dimensional art, which integrates paper sculpture and mixed media collage, draws readers into that lovely far-away community garden where cooperation, sharing, and commitment are so very important. One can almost feel the textures emanate off the pages. And, as a bonus, a recipe for pumpkin vegetable soup is included…”
—Senta Ross

“The story is fun and lively, but the art draws you in to look closer and see what may be – that lea[f], hmm, it looks like a silk leaf.  The ground and dirt look like real ground or dirt, the trees look like they have been scratched in to plaster.  The painted faces of children are precious.  I’ll use this with Storytime preschoolers up to second or third grade.”

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Pajama Press is thrilled to announce that every book in our Spring 2013 list has been recognized in the Canadian Children’s Book Centre‘s Fall 2013 edition of Best Books for Kids & Teens. Those books are:

Nix Minus One by Jill MacLean—Starred Selection

Namesake by Sue MacLeod

Hoogie in the Middle by Stephanie McLeallan, illustrated by Dean Griffiths

Community Soup by Alma Fullerton—Starred Selection

Congratulations to Jill, Sue, Stephanie, Dean, and Alma!

The Canadian Children’s Book Centre has compiled a list of great children’s books for the 2013 holiday season. They include two books published by Pajama Press.

Community Soup by Alma Fullerton

Kioni loves her goats but they can be big trouble! On soup day, when all the other children are gathering vegetables from the community garden, Kioni is gathering goats! Luckily the kids have a great idea, and soon Kioni’s four-legged are helping to make the soup a delicious success…

Kenya / Community Gardens / Community Kitchen

Nix Minus One by Jill MacLean

Quiet, out of shape, and bold only around the neighbourhood’s neglected dog, Nix is the polar opposite of his vibrant sister Roxy. But he’d do anything for her, even hide her late-night partying from their parents. When Roxy goes too far, Nix feels like it’s his life that’s spiralling out of control.

Death / Grief / Bullying / Healing

Click here to see the full Great Reads for the Holidays 2013.

On November 7th Pajama Press celebrated nine books published in 2013 at the Annual Pajama Press Book Launch and Art Show, an event Open Book Toronto called one of “the season’s hottest literary events.” The launch included great food, Ontario wine, excellent company, book signings, and walls filled with framed original picture book art.

Thank you to everyone who came out to make the evening wonderful, including authors and illustrators Jill MacLean (Nix Minus One), Sue MacLeod (Namesake), Alma Fullerton (Community Soup), Stephanie McLellan (Hoogie in the Middle, Tweezle into Everything), Karen Bass (Graffiti Knight), Tara Anderson (Nat the Cat Can Sleep Like That), Meghan Marentette (The Stowaways), and Rob Laidlaw (Cat Champions: Caring for our Feline Friends). Special thanks to the young Cat

Champions who also came out, to our photographers, and to Claude Viens, chef extraordinaire.

Alma Fullerton and her art. Photo credit: Pat Thornton Jones.

Alma Fullerton, Brian Deines and Rob Laidlaw. Photo credit: Pat Thornton Jones.

Alma Fullerton and Gillian O’Reilly. Photo credit: Paul Wilson.

Alma Fullerton and Jill MacLean. Photo credit: Paul Wilson.

Brian Deines and Wallace Edwards. Photo credit: Ellen Nodwell.

Camillia Kahrizi and Kate Edwards. Photo credit: Pat Thornton Jones.

Charlotte Teeple, John Spray and Mary Macchiusi. Photo credit: Paul Wilson.

Christina Vyhnal, Erika Miklasevics, and Sam and Penny Klarreich.

Claude Viens. Photo credit: Pat Thornton Jones.

Dean Griffiths’ art. Photo credit: Paul Wilson.

Dean Griffiths’s The Stowaways “Character Sketch”. Photo credit: Ellen Nodwell.

Dean Griffiths The Stowaways “Dedication Page”. Photo credit: Ellen Nodwell.

Cat Champions, Eddie Nikkifork and Jasmine Polsinelli. Photo credit: Paul Wilson.

Emily and Brian Lindgreen. Photo credit: Paul Wilson.

Former Fitzhenry & Whiteside crew, Max Arambo, Luana Lindorfer, Amy Hingston and Penny Taylor. Photo credit: Ellen Nodwell.

Gail Winskill and Claude Viens. Photo credit: Ellen Nodwell.

Gail Winskill giving her speech. Photo credit: Lisa Meyers.

Harry Black and Mary Macchiusi. Photo credit: Pat Thornton Jones.

Jane Glassco and Mary Anne Cree. Photo credit: Paul Wilson.

Karen Bass, Martin Gould, Gisela Sherman and Marsha Skrypuch. Photo credit: Paul Wilson.

The crowd listening to the speech. Photo credit: Paul Wilson.

Luana Lindorfer, Amy Hingston and Max Arambo. Photo credit: Paul Wilson.

Meghan Marentette and Brian Lindgreen. Photo credit: Pat Thornton Jones.

Meghan Marentette. Photo credit: Ellen Nodwell.

“Or where sunbeams” by Tara Anderson. Photo credit: Paul Wilson.

Rachel Seigel, Susan Menchinton and Arthur Gale. Photo credit: Paul Wilson.

Rebecca Bender. Photo credit: Ellen Nodwell.

Rebecca Bender, Eva and Greg Higgison. Photo credit: Ellen Nodwell.

Staff, authors, illustrators and cat champions. Photo credit: Paul Wilson.

Stephanie McLellan. Photo credit: Ellen Nodwell.

Sue MacLeod, Jill MacLean and Alma Fullerton. Photo credit: Pat Thornton Jones.

Tristan, Erin, Sarah and Stephanie McLellan. Photo credit: Pat Thornton Jones.

“When Strange Shadows” by Tara Anderson. Photo credit: Paul Wilson.

“When the Lights” by Tara Anderson. Photo credit: Paul Wilson.

Aliya Stacey and Rebecca Bender. Photo credit: Paul Wilson.

Brian Deines. Photo credit: Ellen Nodwell.

Erin Woods. Photo credit: Paul Wilson.

Gail Winskill, Terry Jones and Liz Sloan. Photo credit: Paul Wilson.

Karen Bass. Photo credit: Ellen Nodwell.

Kieran Zierer Clarke. Photo credit: Paul Wilson.

“It’s lovely for young readers to catch a glimpse of village life in Kenya. The sentences are short and tell their story with a lively pace. The textural cut paper and collage illustrations add a lovely touch, and will invite close attention to the happenings in the village as the communal soup is prepared. Bright backgrounds match the brilliance of the children’s attire and the soup recipe shared at the back had my mouth watering…it is that time of year for the comfort it brings…”

Click here to read the full review.

“This is a book about school age children in Kenya who have a garden outside their school and work together to harvest the vegetables to make a communal soup for all to share. Unfortunately one child, unable to tie up her goats brings them to school where the children have a lot of laughs trying to stop them from eating their vegetables. At one point someone has the idea to milk the goats and add the milk to the communal soup which makes it more delicious.

This is a fun read that helps children understand the way of life of Kenyan school children and how different their life is from our own. It also describes the various vegetables and what goes into making soup and in the end even gives a recipe for making a pumpkin vegetable soup to make at home with an adult.

Curricular applications include learning about Kenya: discovering a world outside their own, how children work alongside parents and teachers and that children have chores to do before attending school, how community gardens work and how everyone gets to share in the work and in the cultivation, and how to make a communal soup and what goes in.

Thematic links: Children Working Together; Community Gardening and Cooking; Goats.”

Carmen Poulin

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“PreS-Gr 2–With echoes of “Mary Had a Little Lamb,” this amusing tale set in a Kenyan school garden tells the story of students and their teachers making soup. A girl’s recalcitrant goats, however, do little to help with the process: “Kioni has a herd of goats,/with hair of calico./And everywhere Kioni goes,/those goats are sure to…Oh, no!” Finally, one clever student realizes that the animals have just the right ingredient to add to the meal: their milk. This title will be a fun read-aloud, with lots of opportunities for listeners to predict the upcoming action. The full-color, mixed-media collages steal the show. The illustrations add texture and vibrancy to the tale and advance the plot on several wordless pages. The book ends with a recipe for pumpkin vegetable soup. A great choice for group sharing or for units on communities.”
—Sara-Jo Lupo Sites, George F. Johnson Memorial Library, Endicott, NY

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“Book Reviews: Savoring the Bounty of Gardens and Good Food”

—The International Reading Association reviews books about gardening and food, including Community Soup by Alma Fullerton

“’It’s soup day!’ The first line of this story draws readers into a day-in-the-life of Kenyan school community, which Fullerton depicts with mixed-media collage and paper-sculptures that lend a diorama-like depth to each scene….A satisfying and worthy purchase…”

Click here to read the full review.

“Fullerton masterfully runs through the paces and emotions of tracking down the pesky, calico haired goats, her illustrations colorful and very tactile. Very different and visually appealing with her mixture of painted and reference materials, cloth and cut outs[.] I really liked the feel of the illustrations.”

—Agy Wilson, author/illustrator

Click here to read the full review.