Mr. Lepron’s Mystery Soup

Fantastically detailed watercolor, gouache, and colored pencil illustrations give extra sparkle to this theatrically narrated fable about change caused by the relentless demands of growth and success. Prior collaborators Zoboli and Di Giorgio (Professional Crocodile) introduce Mr. Lepron, “a very handsome hare with a bright shiny coat and lovely long ears,” who makes a tasty vegetable soup so renowned that he eventually starts a factory to manufacture it: “Children cry for it; adults crave it.” But the inventive dreams that seem to power Mr. Lepron’s soup-making soon turn to nightmares, and his real-life business begins to suffer complaints. Lush illustrations imagine it all: a cutaway view of Mr. Lepron’s garden and kitchen, hilarious scenes of global soup fame, the soup label itself, and dream after dream after dream, including one in which Hera and Zeus, raving about the product, “order Apollo to make ready a chariot to take them to Earth.” Only Mr. Lepron’s own resolution can save him in this marvelously visualized culinary fable about simplicity gone spectacularly awry. Human characters are portrayed with various skin tones. Ages 3–7. (Oct.)