Author: Carole Tremblay, transl. Charles Simard
Illustrator: Maurèen Poignonec
Publisher: Orca Book Publishers, 2021; Originally published as: La soupe aux lentilles ©2018 Les editions la courte echelle.
Age: 4-8
Themes: soup, lentils, brothers
Opening: see full spread below title page image
Summary: (from my library’s catalog) A young mouse cleverly avoids eating his soup by distracting his older brother with questions about every single ingredient.
I picked this book because: I first pulled it out of the new-release shelf because of the title, and then for the illustrations – so cute I wish the book were larger. (I actually put on a pair of reading glasses that are too strong so I could look at the details more closely!). But why I chose it for PPBF is for the voice of these characters. There is a lot of what could be considered didactic information included in the text, but the characters allow you to look past and enjoy and identify this familiar situation between siblings. A perfect read this time of year in the northern hemisphere, because you are going to want to make soup!
Resources/activities: Make lentil soup! Also, learn about making another basic vegetable soup to introduce kids to the simplicity of creative cooking (my first foray was either tomato or carrot soup, both of which I still love. I just wish I had been introduced to making soup much earlier!) Read companion books, like The Real Story of Stone Soup, or Freedom Soup.
For more Perfect Picture Book Friday picks with teacher/parent resources, check out the list on Susanna Hill’s blog HERE.
Author/Illustrator: Paul Galdone
Summary: (from my library’s catalog) Retells 
I like this book because: It’s a teeny-tiny classic, a re-telling of a folktale that has just the right amount of silly in just the right amount of spooky for not so teeny-tiny kids! The illustrations are cute but not too cute too! And it’s so much fun to read aloud – a priority for me!
Resources/Activities: read this at Halloween or at a sleep-over, or on a dark, rainy afternoon; along with other slightly scary titles like A Creepy Pair Of Underwear/A.Reynolds and P.Brown, Big Bad Bunny/Franny Billingsley and G.Brian Karas
For more Perfect Picture Book Friday picks with teacher/parent resources, check out the list on Susanna Hill’s blog 
julie rowan-zoch 