Recipes and stories by Chris Hyde, illustrations by Roxanna Groves
Bear’s Souper Sunday Cookbook – Recipes for Hungry Animals is a delightful illustrated children’s cookbook that restores hope and community through the act of making and sharing food with one’s tribe. It’s also an effective way for parents and other caregivers to bond with children through its whimsical stories, wonderful illustrations, and easy, healthy recipes. Kids love the stories and illustrations, and spending quality time with their folks.
The book includes 12 soup recipes, each one represented by woodland animal. Squirrel, for example, loves peanuts, so he convinces Bear, the gentle patriarch of the forest community, to make a soup that Squirrel’s cousin, African Squirrel, told him about. Bear gladly accepts the challenge and tells the readers how to make this special soup.
The soups are original recipes that Hyde has made for the “Souper Sunday” group he created, where he makes soup for his neighbors for free. Souper Sunday has grown rapidly and as of July 2025 there are several Souper Sunday satellite groups in three states. It’s become a movement to heal through cooking and sharing and repairing rifts in our often divided communities. This book will give your family a jumping off point to reclaim hope and innocence in a time of divisiveness and doubt.
This is what other animals are saying about Bear’s Souper Sunday Cookbook:
This is a VERY impressive recipe book! I’m glad that animals have finally been acknowledged and given agency to represent the soups that are important to their families. I especially like Mouse with his giant tomato in his tiny wheelbarrow. Hilarious! If you love children, animals and soup, this book is for you.
~ R.J. Toad, editor of Frog and Stream magazine
This lovely book appeals to children and adults alike. The recipes are simple and create an easy way for parents to teach their little critters cooking skills, and to bond over delicious soup. I made the Lentil and Vegetable soup with my fawn Sophie, and she said it tasted like love. Share this book with your little animals.
~ I.L. Deer, author of Cooking for Ungulates
Bear’s Souper Sunday Cookbook supersedes similar stabs at sophisticated and salient sustenance’s. So, sprint, don’t saunter to secure this scroll of souper satisfying sautéed sweet, spicey and sometimes savory soup stories.
~ Slither Sutherland, author of A Serpent’s Guide to Scrumptious Soups
Information about how to purchase Bear’s Souper Sunday Cookbook: Recipes for Hungry Animals is below this information about the author and the illustrator:
Chris Hyde is an artist, musician and author who is best known as the creator of the Souper Sunday movement. He is on a mission to connect neighbors through sharing food and building community. Hyde believes that there is an epidemic of loneliness, isolation and hopelessness in our society that needs to be healed by acknowledging that we are all connected as members of our shared human family.
Find out more about Chris Hyde on his MFP author page here.
Illustrator of Bear’s Souper Sunday Cookbook Roxanna Groves writes:
“I have been drawing and writing since I could hold a crayon and find a blank wall. At the heart of what I do is my need to tell a story, communicate on a level that is inclusive and make people smile, or even laugh.”
Groves says she has been whacked over the head with the sobriquet “whimsical” for many years and now embraces it. Her art in the soup story were part of a collaboration with Chris Hyde and Souper Sunday. “What could we do that hadn’t been done before? Get Chris’ recipes out there and use my ability to carry a story with a picture! It’s been a joyful process to bring these creatures to life and I am really happy that I was able to give this work to Chris and Souper Sunday to carry the message further and hopefully raise more money to feed anyone who needs it.”
Publication year: 2025
Trade paper, 54 pages, 8.5″ x 11″
Price: $24.00
ISBN: 978-0980032291
Or scan this QR code to purchase the book:
