Ivy Hendy
Ranny, and her younger brother Boo live in the Stone Age. Just as sometimes happens with children of today, Ranny and Boo did not want to eat the soup that their parents fixed for them. They knew they should appreciate it because their parents gathered all the vegetables to put into the soup. Stone age children could sometimes go out on their own. Ranny and Boo’s parents say the children can look for small animals to hunt to add to the soup. Ranny and Boo walk to the salty lake. But the children find no animals at all until they think to gather up drowned grasshoppers. The children bring the grasshoppers back to the village to give to their parents. Their parents are surprised to see that Ranny and Boo brought back grasshoppers. Their mother puts the grasshoppers on stones to dry. The next day their mother finds some empty ostrich eggshells in which to make the soup. The family all work together, putting the vegetables and grasshoppers into the soup and then letting it cook for a long time. In the evening, the children and their parents eat the grasshopper soup. Their father teases them that now they might start hopping around. The children laughingly oblige while the family eats their delicious grasshopper soup. In this adventurous story about Stone Age children, readers see how independent thinking can often solve problems. Readers learn some of the challenges about living in hunter/gatherer villages and how there have always been dilemmas for us to overcome. The children in this story can and do make a difference.
