Cooking Up History, Stirring Up Identity:A Review of Freedom Soup

The book Freedom Soup, written by Tami Charles, illustrated by Jacqueline Alcántara, and published by Scholastic tells a rich and sensory story that starts in the kitchen but reaches far beyond it. Right from the cover, we are welcomed by the two main characters: Ti Gran and her granddaughter Belle. They are women. They are Black. They are dancing bodies. They are in a kitchen. They are home.

The colorful illustrations seem to dance across the pages, not metaphorically, but rather in a truly visual sense. As the soup begins to boil, so does the narrative. Not only does Ti Gran share her recipe – written at the end of the book -, but also Haiti’s revolutionary past and the story of Haitian Independence Day celebrated every January 1st since 1804.

As teachers, this celebration strikes a chord with the superdiverse realities of our classrooms – not “super” as in overly positive, but as a way to acknowledge the complex and layered subjectivities of learners who often belong to multiple, fluid communities. We regularly meet learners who are immigrants, refugees or navigating between cultures. In that sense, Freedom Soup brings into the classroom a conversation around diasporic memory, racism, slavery, food as resistance and intergenerational ties which shape identity.

The power of a picture book lies precisely in this: connecting us to the affective dimension of our childhood experiences – whether through the illustrations, the act of cooking, the presence of a grandma, the singing, or the dancing. Exploring the illustrations is key to ensuring we are co-constructing the narrative with students. While younger children might have more difficulty grasping the concept of freedom and the more nuanced layers of the story, older children – and dare I say, even teenagers – will definitely benefit from the opportunity of listening to it.

The complexity of the narrative and the absence of a pattern of repetition could feel discouraging to the young learner educator trying to get children’s attention. However, by carefully studying the storyline, planning the language to be used, taking advantage of the visuals, and adding some L1 linking words, mimics, instruments, different voices and facial expressions to the story, there is room to bring storytelling to 5-year-olds as well. 4-year-olds, in turn, will love to listen to some kompa music, and even more so to cook. Why not, right?

An invitation to seeing different “formas linguageiras e visões de mundo” (Belintane, 2017), while engaging with the many modes of meaning-making we
have available – dancing, writing, singing, drawing, cooking – Freedom Soup serves up an urgent and powerful reminder: freedom, like a good recipe, must be fought for, preserved and celebrated in each and every generation.