What is "stone soup"

n. A traditional Portuguese thick soup, ''sopa de pedra''.

Stone Soup is an old folk story in which hungry strangers manipulate the local people of a town into sharing their food. In varying traditions, the stone has been replaced with other common inedible objects, and therefore the fable is also known as axe soup, button soup, nail soup, and wood soup.

Stone Soup, renamed for the stone soup fable, is an internationally syndicated American comic strip written and illustrated by Jan Eliot. The comic strip began as a weekly in 1990, and ran for five years in the Eugene, Oregon Register-Guard under the name "Sister City", before being syndicated. The syndicated daily strip debuted in November 1995. Universal Press syndicate reportedly requested the name change because they felt that the original name might be perceived by some readers as too "feminist" in orientation. In October 2015, the strip ceased daily production but Eliot planned to continue producing the Sunday version.

The Stone family features a family headed by single mother Val, an uncommon contrast with the ordinary nuclear family depicted in more traditional strips. As the author explained,

When I write I am writing first and foremost for single and working parents. I often felt very isolated and "put down" because of my circumstances (I was a single working mom for 10 years). I even had a teacher tell me that their school "was a better place before all the single moms arrived". My daughters both turned out fabulously, thank you, and I think I was a good parent.

It is common for strip storylines to consist of household squabbles and arguments that are not resolved. Unlike many strips, the characters do age, but at a very slow rate. Val has celebrated her 38th and 39th birthdays in the strip; Alix and Holly were 9 and 12 when the strip began, and are now 10 and 13.

Stone Soup is a fable about cooperation amid scarcity.

Stone Soup may also refer to:

Stone Soup is a literary magazine for children that publishes writing and art created by children from all over the world. The magazine was founded in 1973 by college students at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Their purpose was to “encourage youngsters to use writing as a way to talk about their lives.” They continue to run the publication today from their offices in Santa Cruz, California. Booklist described Stone Soup’s editorial philosophy as “children can meet the highest standard of literature and art.”