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“Soupy Saturdays with
the Pain and the Great One” by Judy Blume, illus. by James Stevenson (Delacorte
Books for Young Readers, 9780385733052, $12.99)
Judy Blume’s newest is a chapter book in which each brief chapter is a short
story about a brother and sister who call each other, somewhat affectionately,
“The Pain” and “The Great One.” Together, they survive death-defying trips to
the barbershop, surmount the challenges of dog-sitting duty, weather the rigors
of soccer practice, and ruin one perfectly planned princess-themed half-birthday
party.
First-grader Jacob, the Pain, only eats white foods—but he insists that he’s not
picky, because he’ll *any* white food. He loves to get on his big sister’s
nerves, and his secret weapon is her biggest, juiciest secret: she doesn’t know
how to ride her bike, so instead she always pretends that it’s broken! He’ll
keep his mouth shut, though, as long as the Great One agrees to have a cake with
white frosting at her party.
Third-grader Abigail, the Great One, prides herself on always knowing exactly
what her little brother is thinking: she’s the older sibling, so everything the
Pain wants to do, she’s done first! Still, in between chasing him out of her
room and banning him from her Princess Party, she does take pretty good care of
him: after all, she’s the one who made him a pair of fake decoy ears to wear to
the barbershop, and she’s also the one who saved him from always having to play
goalie in soccer. She’s such a great big sister that she should be allowed to
baby-sit!
“Soupy Saturdays with the Pain and the Great One” is a fun, beginning-reader
chapter book well-suited to kids in the early grades. With about one hundred
pages (including lots of incidental illustrations), it paints an affectionate
picture of a brother-sister relationship that’s big enough and real enough to
include games, fights, saying sorry, and all sorts of secret sibling signals
that only the Pain, the Great One, and their striped cat Fluzzy can fully
understand.
Recommended for readers in first, second, & third grades
Review by Mark
David Bradshaw,
September 5, 2007
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