The Most Delicious Soup and Other Stories

The Villa Verde plaza is full of animals, which Ruiz Johnson (While You Are Sleeping) portrays as stylized, clothed, upright forms with elegant, expressive eyes. A tortoise blows a bubblegum bubble; a chicken’s straw-filled stroller contains an egg; a duck jumps rope between a rabbit and a frog. Five stories follow in a natural-sounding translation by Harvey. In “Firm friends,” a young croc-like reptile called Coco falls in love with Thunder, a blue ladybug up for adoption at the market, then discovers the pet’s raucous side. In “Journeys on paper,” Grandma and Luis, both tortoises, head to the library on a rainy afternoon. Third tale “That’s enough, Gina!” sees a young duck overtaken by desire for everything she sees at the market. Coco stars again in “Scary camping,” in which a thunderstorm interrupts a tent-side storytelling session. And in the grand finale, “The most delicious soup,” the whole village comes together to feast—and to clean up. In this idyllic testament to village existence, life is good for the children of Villa Verde, whose caretakers indulge them with banana bread and chocolate cake, and even a local owl helps when a treasured balloon gets loose. Ages 3–6. (Feb.)