The Biggest Soap

Brings the art of storytelling to life. My daughter and I have read this many times, and the characters and landscape have grown on us.

Like Preston Sturges' 1941 Sullivan's Travels, this book celebrates the art and magic of storytelling. Here, the auteur is not an escapist film director, but a young boy of the Turk Islands, sent by his mother to get the "biggest soap" for a very large load of laundry. Early on, we see two prime motivations for young "Kessy," his love of hearing stories at the communal washing pool, and, as the youngest of three brothers, his need to prove himself. The two motives drive the plot along: "He was proud that Mama picked him to go to Minda's Store. But he didn't want to miss a single story at the washing pool. `To get back in time,' he told himself, `I'll have to be fast as a typhoon wind.'" He sets off in a hurry towards Minda's small storefront, despite the invitations of his mud-covered brothers, his Uncle Cho, busy installing a new window, and young "Amina" with her intriguing telescope. However, Kessy's big-hearted personality slows down his return trip, and reduces the size of the soap as well. Each of the villagers that he met on the way to Minda's now has a problem that requires Kessy's time and soap! HE cleverly and generously solves their problems, but arrives late to story-telling time. When asked why he is late, and why the soap is not "the biggest soap," Kessy launches into his own story--and what a story it is. He takes the facts of his actual encounters and greatly embellishes them with myth and exaggeration, including a "Fish-Spirit Girl," a "ghost scared away only by a chunk of the biggest yellow soap cut with a silver knife," and two "Giant Mud Monsters (his brothers)." Kessy the story listener has become Kessy the Story Teller, and pond washes celebrate his newfound talent. Stacey Dressen-McQueen's colored pencil, oil pastel, and acrylic illustrations are a marvel of authentic Oceanic Island motifs and brightly colored, energetic scenes of island dwellers and local flora and fauna. According to the back flyleaf, Ms. McQueen's colors were "inspired by Gauguin," and they enliven Carole Lexa Schaefer's already engaging, original story. I only wish that the publisher had printed this on even higher quality paper (although the paper is sturdy enough, and costs might have gone up), and that someone had chosen a more revealing title than "The Biggest Soap." That vague title explains why I've gone to some lengths describing a truly warm, clever, and beautifully illustrated story.