Blueberries for Sal

Sal and her mother a picking blueberries to can for the winter. But when Sal wanders to the other side of Blueberry Hill, she discovers a mama bear preparing for her own long winter. Meanwhile Sal's mother is being followed by a small bear with a big appetite for berries!

The story along with the illustrations is so simple but so powerful. It mirrors the experience of the human mother and baby with the mama bear and baby bear. It really shows that we all have the same experiences! This story is perfect and charming!

As a child, my favorite pictures were the ones of Sal and her mother in the kitchen. I remember looking at those details, which even then created a scene of an old fashioned life, and feeling the satisfaction of canning blueberries. As I got older, I loved following the parallel structure of the story and the dramatic irony of the bear being with Sal's mother and Sal being with the bear's mother. Reading it with my own children, the highlight was always the sound of the blueberries falling into the pail, "Kerplink, kerplank, kerplunk!"

This is one I've read about a thousand times. Just love it.

One of my favorite books from childhood! The line-drawing illustrations are simultaneously homely and adorable. Little Sal has the sweetest little smushed up face; she looks so much more realistic to my eyes than most toddlers in picture books. This may be one of the only cases that a limited color palatte in a picture book doesn't bother me. Instead it enhances or perhaps simply complements the text - since the story is about blueberries and has bears as characters, the dark blue/black coloring of the line drawings suits the story eminently.

I love the parallel storylines of Little Sal and Little Bear. I remember really relating to the story as a kid; I remember being shocked that I had accidentally followed some other lady (not my show more mother) out of a store! I liked the "kuplunk"s and "kuplink"s and the tin can and the sweetness of the story and the love of blueberries! I love the whole thing, actually. show less

I love this book. My kids all loved it, 20-25 years ago. The preschoolers I know now love it. Must be good. Its a comforting story of a child and mother, and a baby bear and mother getting mixed up with each other while picking blueberries. the adults are way more worried than the youngsters, and it all turns out fine in the end.

Blueberries For Sal is one of my favorite childhood books and it's still a favorite even though I'm 20. First, the language is descriptive and imaginative. For example, every time Sal put blueberries in her pail, the writing says "kuplink, kuplank, kuplunk!" The reader can imagine the sound it makes when the blueberries hit the pail. Secondly, the characters are well developed, through the authors writing you can tell that Sal is young, care-free, and happy. Sal is picking blueberries for winter but eating them all, "Then little Sal sat all four blueberries out of her pail!" You know she is just having fun, because every blueberry she drops in her pail she eats. Finally, the illustrations are amazing and fit the style of the writing. show more The drawing are simple line drawings but show the realism of the story. Each page is filled with very detailed illustrations of what is happening throughout the story. I think this book is cute and a fun read for all young kids. show less

Sal is a cutie, a really real and curious kid, not a little angel or a scapegrace as in so many books from that era. And I like the elegant anticlimax this hinges on, almost thee opposite of the constaht blaring that emerges from kids' anything nowadays. And the woodblock prints are nice, and this book is nice.

If you have ever been to Maine, you will instantly recognize it, in the classic drawings in this lovely book. Sal is tasked with helping her mother pick blueberries to can for the winter. But this little girl would rather eat them. And so would the furry friend who is also helping her mother on the other side of the mountain.