Granny Torelli Makes Soup

    Granny Torrelli Makes Soup is a chapter book for children (girls in particular) who do not like to read. The chapters are incredibly short, the characters speedily described and the suspense makes the pages turn.
    The book starts out with a friendship in crisis between Rosie, Granny T's granddaughter, and Bailey, the boy next door.  In Steve Biddulph's book Raising Boys, he suggests that one should teach one's son to fold laundry by folding it with him. He says it is an amazing opportunity to have intimate conversations while not looking at each other. In this book Granny Torrelli uses cooking to draw out the story and then subtly solve the problem.
    The best feature of this book (besides the handy recipe) is that Bailey is deaf and Creech makes it seem cool to be deaf. Rosie is jealous that he can read braille, that he is flirting with other girls, that he has a secret life that she doesn't know about.
    Granny Torrelli is a great story teller. She weaves in the story of her passionate past, which relates so well to the actions of the present. Creech is subliminally saying, she may not be fashionable, she may sit around in the kitchen a lot, but if you ask your grandmother, you may be in for a big surprise.
    On the back of this book, that my son's in particular, liked, I have bought two more Creech's "Love That Dog" and "Heartbeat" which I will be reviewing soon. If you can't wait, then check out her site:
Sharon Creech's website