Book study: Blueberries for Sal
Little Sal and her mother go to Blueberry Hill to pick blueberries, as do Little Bear and his mother. Will each mother go home with the right child?
Welcome to the next Petite Reads book study! (You can find the other four here: “Mice Skating,” “Adèle and Simon,” “Little Bear’s Trousers” and “The Seven Silly Eaters.”
In these monthly book studies, we take a deep dive into a particular picture book and explore some ideas, activities and conversation starters to bring the book to life.
This month’s book is “Blueberries for Sal,” a classic story by Robert McCloskey. Little Sal and her mother visit Blueberry Hill to pick blueberries for canning, while Little Bear and his mother are eating blueberries to store them up for the winter. Along the way, the little ones absentmindedly mix up their mothers. Will each mother go home with the right child? (Spoiler, because we are reading for toddlers and need to know story time won’t end in tears: They do!)
About the book:
Title: “Blueberries for Sal”
Author/illustrator: Robert McCloskey
Recommended age: 2-5
Review: If you read the newsletter about little animals in springtime, you know I’m a fan of Robert McCloskey. Like “Make Way for Ducklings,” “Blueberries for Sal” is gentle and charming, and my children requested it every day for a week.
McCloskey paces the story perfectly, so that children can experience the action and have time to mull it around in their minds and make sense of it before the story progresses. I love when authors take this approach. The story is calming to read, unlike some books that cram too much text/action on the page, and I struggle to read the words while my children fire out questions about what’s happening.
I also love how McCloskey acknowledges a child’s perspective in a respectful way. For example, he describes the sound the berries make as Sal drops them in her tin pail (“kuplink!”), and he explains why she accidentally grabs a handful of berries out of her mother’s pail when she means to only grab one (“because there were so many blueberries right up close to the one she had put in”). He writes so that children are empowered to understand the story without adult commentary. Any book that respects the childhood experience the way McCloskey does is a winner for me.
Look a little closer:
The story is simple, but the illustrations are not. McCloskey’s line drawings are full of detail and lend themselves to lingering.
Do your children notice that the illustrations are in blue (not black) and white to pay tribute to blueberries? Study the endpapers (there is a kitchen scene where Little Sal and her mother are canning their blueberries), and consider the canning process and how Little Sal’s kitchen might look the same/different from yours.
Learn new words:
Books are a wonderfully easy way to expand children’s vocabulary. Words in this book that were new to my children include:
Canning
Pail
Partridge
Gulp
Have a conversation:
Ask your children:
Did you know where blueberries came from before this story?
Do you like blueberries? What is your favorite berry?
Would you like to be a bear and eat as much as you can before winter comes and you have to hibernate? Would you like to sleep all winter?
Make it an experience:
My children love when real-life experiences parallel their favorite stories. Here are a few ways we’ve brought this story to life:
Find a local U-pick farm, and pick whatever is in season. Here in the midwest, blueberry season is typically in July and August, but strawberry season is just beginning.
Can your freshly picked fruit, or bake it in a yummy treat. (This blueberry baked oatmeal is a favorite breakfast in our house.)
Go on a nature hike (or, like us, take a walk around the neighborhood) and fill up brown bags (bonus points if you have a tin pail!) with treasures like rocks, sticks, leaves—anything your little ones find!
“One earns paradise with one’s daily task.” — St. Gianna Molla
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Can’t wait to try this with my 3.5 yo daughter (and her 1 yo little brother who is always along for the ride). This is one of my childhood favorites, and we’re in a Book Party lull after trying Clarkie Doster’s first Theme Party, which was big fun. This is the perfect fix as we find the rhythm of summer. Thanks for putting this together!