-If that’s enough… -If that’s enough? And that’s still enough!
Darabuc and Rashin Kheiriyeh are the cooks of this delicious Soup of Nothing that hungry readers can now find in OQO editora’s menu.
The author recovers an old recipe, that of the Stone Soup, a folk tale that, as often happens with stories of traditional origin, has different versions depending on the country.
-If that’s enough… -If that’s enough? And that’s still enough!
Darabuc and Rashin Kheiriyeh are the cooks of this delicious Soup of Nothing that hungry readers can now find in OQO editora’s menu.
The author recovers an old recipe, that of the Stone Soup, a folk tale that, as often happens with stories of traditional origin, has different versions depending on the country.
Darabuc, a connoisseur of this rich tradition, is inspired by it but reworks the ingredients and cooks a Soup of nothing, personal, modern and with large doses of humor. The result is a fable with which children will learn the importance of sharing and solidarity. They will also discover that to overcome situations of need and difficulties, often all that is needed is a little ingenuity and imagination.
The main characters, as in almost all fables, are animals. In this case, María Zorruna and Juan Gato, two rogues who one fine day arrive at the doors of a palace asking for food. There lives the miser Juan Rata who does not want to give them anything, and they then offer to prepare him a prodigious soup, soup of nothing.
The author plays with the symbolism of the characters, since both the fox and the cat are animals to which the collective imagination attributes characteristics such as intelligence or cunning. And the same can be said of the rat, an animal traditionally associated with stinginess.
Darabuc opts for a dialogical structure in which the always funny replies and counter-replies of the characters move the story forward. The outline, which is generally faithful to tradition, is as follows: María Zorruna suggests some ingredient with which the soup would taste much better and Juan Rata, who does not realize the ruse, willingly accepts to give it to her, because it is only an unimportant ingredient.
The repetition of all the ingredients each time a new one is added, in addition to helping the rhythm of the story, gives children a golden opportunity to work with some of the most common units of measurement (pinch, dash, dash, bunch, string) in the kitchen.
Other resources such as the measure of the verses or the presence of formulas that are repeated from beginning to end also reinforce the rhythm of the narration.
But if one thing should be clear about Sopa de nada, it’s that it’s a fun album. Open it, take a look at the illustrations by Rashin Kheiriyeh and a smile immediately comes to your lips. What a surprise! And what strange characters! So, all dressed in black from head to toe, and wearing dark glasses… They don’t exactly look like little angels, but rather… what if they are… shhhh… gangsters?
The Iranian illustrator, who perfectly captures the irreverent touch that Darabuc gives to the story, presents some not at all innocent protagonists. And on top of that, she provides new reasons for laughter – why, is there anything funnier than seeing such sinister characters, wearing aprons and stirring in the pot?
Simplicity is one of the characteristics of the personality of this artist who collaborates for the first time with OQO editora. For her work, she chooses a reduced color palette, based on earth tones, some shades of green, black or white. However, she compensates this sobriety with oils from which she obtains rich textures, and also with collages thanks to which she achieves the impression of volume in the compositions.
We cannot fail to comment on the setting in which the adventures of these three rascals unfold, the Nohaynada desert. The choice of the place represents a small tribute by the author to oriental tales of cunning, since the Orient is one of the places with the greatest tradition in the genre.
Once again, a revealing detail of the enormous wealth hidden in this album that draws from very old traditions and recovers for the new generations a valuable cultural heritage. And to this, we must add the fresh and unprejudiced look of the author, who creates some hilarious characters, and of the illustrator, creator of the modern aesthetics of the album and of the surprising look of the main characters.
Text by Darabuc Illustrations by Rashin Kheiriyeh
