Book Review: Chicken Soup for the Volunteer's Soul

Chicken Soup for the Volunteer's Soul: Stories to Celebrate the Spirit of Courage, Caring and Community, by Jack Canfield et al. (Backlist, 2012, 363pp, $16.95) Review by Skye Anderson.

The Chicken Soup books are like Reader's Digest: everyone has read them at some time(s) in their lives, even subscribed to the Digest. Then you read other things and forget about them. When you return to them a few years later, it is like going home - very comforting. Maybe that is why so many Reader's Digests find their way into the hands of deployed troops far from home.

I read my share of Chicken Soup years ago (the first Chicken Soup book came out in 1993) but don't remember which one(s). So, it was about time I came back and when the opportunity arose to read and review Chicken Soup for the Volunteer's Soul, I jumped at the chance and was not disappointed.

Nine chapters, each with a theme such as Defining Moments or Making a Difference, not really exciting section headings but the short chapter titles are more enticing: A Hug and a Kiss, A Tiny Denim Dress, Sap to Seedling.

And interspersed are full page comics to grin at, and numerous quotes to start each chapter - quotes that simply hit the spot, from the well-known to the Bible, to everyman. In the back of the book can be found a paragraph about each author, each volunteer.

And finally, since this is a book of true stories by volunteers, most chapters end with an editor's note telling the reader more about that particular volunteer's organization - just in case you yourself are looking for an opportunity to give back (the Red Cross, Big Brothers and smaller, more local organizations, etc.).

Who are the Volunteers? 

Volunteers are ordinary people, inspired. . . . 

You will meet the college senior looking for an easy grade who decides to volunteer (but procrastinates) and then finds the experience so rewarding that he skips his own graduation party. 

You will get to know the grandmother in hospice whose own child is expecting. Grandmother wants to leave her grandchild-to-be something memorable since she won't be around, so she starts a needlepoint canvas but then slowly weakens. Her volunteer works on the project and when there is only one stitch left to do, guides the grandmother's hands so everyone will know that she started and finished the picture with her heart.

Chicken Soup, A New York Times Bestseller from 1994-1998

I decided to learn more about Chicken Soup. I already recognized the name of Jack Canfield and wondered if there was a book in the series about what dogs teach us. The website, ChickenSoup.com, would surely tell if there was a dog book in the Chicken Soup series but was I amazed to find 232 books in the series! And yes, even television got into the act with 19 episodes.

On the website, you can sign up to receive an inspirational story each day (or week) and learn how to submit your own story to celebrate the spirit of courage, caring and community.

And here is a Chicken Soup dog book trailer!

And now, if you will excuse me, I need to go to the bookstore and pick up another dose of courage, caring and community (from dogs, of course).