At six and four years old, my daughters seem too young for work in a soup kitchen. Luckily, Uncle Willie and the Soup Kitchen by Dyanne Disalvo-Ryan is the next best thing and the perfect addition to the waning days of Help the Hungry Month.

A young boy narrates this book, describing the day he spends helping Uncle Willie at the soup kitchen. He offers visceral sensory descriptions of the delicious food, the enormous scale of cooking for a crowd, and the astonishing number and diversity of people who come to eat. He even gets to make a few friends that day.

I asked a few questions afterward to start a family discussion on the ideas in the book:

• Why does the boy ask his uncle to take him to the soup kitchen?
• Why does Uncle Willie think his work at the soup kitchen is important?
• What does Uncle Willie’s nephew notice about the Can Man in the beginning of the book?
• What does he know about the can man at the end of the book?
• What is the boy’s reaction to visiting and helping at the soup kitchen?
• How does this book make you feel about people being hungry and lonely?

Though some of this story evidently went right over the head of Little Miss Four, she still enjoyed it over all, and asks for it from time to time. For Miss First-Grader, the discussion lead to more questions along with a declaration.

Good thing this is help the hungry month. We have a lot of people to help with those pennies!

Doing Good Together’s director Jenny Friedman featured this book in our newsletter this month, and my family approves whole-heartedly.

Tags: Children's Books, Help the Hungry Month

About Sarah

Sarah Aadland is striving to make family volunteering a meaningful habit for her family of five. Join the conversation as she ponders what they may (or may not have) learned and looks for helpful information about raising compassionate kids.Though she plans to one day put her Masters in Public Policy back to work for social justice, she sees family volunteering as a way to build a stronger community, a better world, and a more connected family. In addition to her children, Sarah tends a large garden, a small flock of chickens, and a habit of mindfulness amid the necessary rituals of parenting.

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