Review Detail

Mr. Lepron's Mystery Soup

Kids Fiction 259

If you build it, can you sustain it?

March 09, 2025 (Updated: June 06, 2026)

Overall rating

4.0

Plot

4.0

Characters

4.0

Writing Style

4.0

Illustrations/Photos (if applicable)

4.0

After raising a bounty of fresh garden vegetables on his estate, Mr. Lepron's children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren help him reap his harvest. He then concocts a delectable soup out of the produce, seasoned with fresh herbs and love in his special soup pot. The soup is offered to neighbors and friends, who all spread the word about how tasty it is. Soon, everyone wants a taste of the soup, intrigued by the special flavor. Eventually, Mr. Lepron starts a soup factory, and plans distribution of six flavors, including the deep purple beetroot. Sales are good at first, but as work consumes more and more of Mr. Lepron's thoughts and horrible dreams, the quality of the soup suffers, and people start to complain. Eventually, the harried hare shuts down the factory and returns to his roots, making soup for the people he loves because it gives him joy, and his cooking returns to its previous quality.

Good Points

This Italian import clearly shows a love of cooking, and fans of farm-to-table movements or slow food initiatives will love Mr. Lepron's devotion to his yearly ritual of making soup for his family. Of course, entrepreneurship is often valued; why not commodify something good and make money from it? Lepron sets out with all the good intentions in the world to do this, but has to eventually bow to the fact that there are some qualities that can't be canned and shipped.

The watercolor and gouache illustrations feel very rich and textured, and show idyllic scenes of Lepron's family eating soup, but also frightening ones of witches in swamps! The can of Lepron's soup is somehow especially enticing, with the faintest of nods to the iconic Campbell's Soup label. There is a very classic, almost 1940s picture book feel to these, and plenty of details to add interest. The translation readers smoothly.

This started out with a "Peter Rabbit starts a business" vibe, and then became a bit dark, with soup flooding poor Mr. Lepron's dreams. I can't think that there are many cautionary tales about work Life balance, but this would be a good cautionary tale alongside Jory and Oswald's The Good Egg, Creech and Bliss's A Fine, Fine School, or Bond's Much Too Busy.