Chicken Soup for the Soul

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Chicken Soup for the Soul is a series of books, usually featuring a collection of short, inspirational stories and motivational essays. The 101 stories in the first book of the series were compiled by motivational speakers Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen.

There have been numerous volumes of Chicken Soup issued. As of January 2006, there were over 105 titles. Many of the books are directed at specific groups of people, e.g. Chicken Soup for the Mother's Soul, Chicken Soup for the Preteen Soul, Chicken Soup for the Prisoner's Soul, Chicken Soup for the Volunteer's Soul, Chicken Soup for the Grandparent's Soul, Chicken Soup for the Ocean Lover's Soul, etc.

The first book sold over 2 million copies and launched the series. There are now over 100 million copies in print and in 54 languages world-wide. The Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul series (there are over 14 titles) is one of the first series of non-fiction books which have sold directly to teens in the US, Canada, the UK and Australia.

The series has spawned a number of imitators and parodies including Chicken Soup for the Vegetarian's Soul, as well as a line of licensed products, including greeting cards, calendars, gift products, pet food, CDs, DVDs, and nutritional supplements.

The name "Chicken Soup" was chosen for this series because chicken soup is supposed to have a healing effect for ill individuals. And, the "chicken soup" series were supposed to help people heal from their state of sadness, or what ever it was that was wrong with their lives.