Blueberries for Sal

This week for Favorite Book Friday, I'm taking a break from the God's Girls series to share a delicious berry book, Blueberries for Sal by Robert McCloskey. It's blueberry season in Minnesota, and the berries are abundant in the woods, so I thought it would be appropriate to celebrate blueberry season with a classic book on that theme.

One day, Little Sal went with her mother to Blueberry Hill to pick blueberries. This begins a berry-picking adventure in which a mother and her child Sal, and a bear mother and her child, come to Blueberry Hill store up food for the winter. When the Sal and the bear-child lag behind, they become lost and begin following the other mother. I love the humor in what happens next:

Little Bear's mother took one good look [at Sal] and backed away. (She was old enough to be shy of people, even a very small person like Little Sal.)

Then, a few pages later:

Little Sal's mother slowly backed away. (She was old enough to be shy of bears, even very small bears like Little Bear.)

In the end, Sal is reunited with her mother, Little Bear is reunited with his mother, and both go home with plenty of blueberries for the winter.

The setting is based on the late McCloskey's home, Scott Island, Maine, and the characters are believed to be based on his wife and oldest daughter, Sarah.

What I Love About This Book:

~ The illustrations are done in block printing, and the simplicity of the blue-and-white pictures really enhances the story. In fact, McCloskey's illustrations earned him a Caldecott Honor for this title in 1949. (Robert McCloskey actually won the Caldecott Medal twice, in fact, the highest honor awarded to an illustrator of children's books.)

~I love the vintage look of this book! The endpapers (those first few printed pages at the front and back of the book) show Sal and her mother canning blueberries in their 1940's era-kitchen. It made me wish I had a metal pail, too, when I went picking this week:

After sharing this book with a child, you might like to try some of the bear activities here or make the recipe for Blueberry Rise 'n' Shine Biscuits here (simply scroll down to locate it).