A precious story of a mother and her daughter picking blueberries for he winter. As they pick them on the hill they meet a mother bear and her cub. The story follows both pairs, contrasting the two. Little Sal is found by her mother eating all of the berries before putting them in her pail. She is supposed to be keeping as many as she can and the little cub is to be eating all she can. This story tells the tale of two families and saving for winter.

“Blueberries for Sal” written by Robert McCloskey is a wonderful children’s story with beautiful illustrations. In this story, Sal and her mother travel to Blueberry Hill to pick berries for the winter. Little Sal’s mother works hard to pick berries, but Little Sal keeps eating every berry she picks. On the other side of the hill Little bear and his mother, a mother crow and her children, and a mother partridge and her children were picking berries for winter also. All of the children keep eating the berries and play; the children all get separated from their mothers but are reunited in the end. Everyone stores enough berries to survive the winter months. This story is best suited for Kindergarten to Third grade students.

One of those classic, brilliantly constructed, SIMPLE stories for children that curl them up ever closer next to you in eager anticipation of where the blueberries will lead its four characters next. I never got tired of hearing "plink, plank, plunk" when I was a child, which for extra effect my mom always read to me as "pa-link, pa-lank, pa-lunk." A pure and simple sound that perfectly evokes the quiet landscape of an afternoon spent collecting blueberries. ( )

Blueberries for Sal by Robert McCloskey is 1940s classic children's story. The story starts with Sal and her mother heading out to pick blueberries to can for the winter. Today, there are many children who may not know what canning is, so this idea in the story might cause some confusion for younger children that don't know anything about canning. Next, the story unfolds and reveals another mother/daughter pair out for blueberries, Mother Bear and Little Bear. Next, a case of mistaken identities occurs as the 'children' get lost and follow the wrong 'adult'. The story is predictable on many levels, but for the right age group and child I still think "Blueberries for Sal," is a wonderful story. ( )

Genre: realistic fiction
Age: primary
Media: pen and ink

This book places animals and humans preparing for winter side by side. We see Sal and her mom picking berries for jam and the bears eating berries to prepare for hibernation. Both of these events are realistic and can be found often. The only part that is questionable is the encounter that happens between Sal and the bear cub but I guess it is possible that they would leave one another alone. I felt that the book had more realistic qualities than not. ( )