Picture Book 2

Picture Book 2
Title: Blueberries for Sal
Publisher: Puffin Books. 1948
ISBN: 0 14 050.169 X






I picked this story because it was one of my favorites as a child.  It is a Caldecott Honors Book.  It is also different from many picture books because it is not in color, it is done in black and white ink drawings.  The first picture shows a farmhouse from 1940s Maine. I like it because it shows what a life  looked like in the old days with an old stove; and a mother and her young daughter are canning blueberries.  In the story, Little Sal and her mother go blueberry picking in the woods up on Blueberry Hill.  Little Sal is eating blueberries and gets separated from her mother.  A mother bear and her little baby bear also get separated from each other while eating their blueberries up on Blueberry Hill.  The little bear cub ends up with the human mother, and Little Sal ends up with the bear mother.  Little Bear and Little Sal’s mother, and Little Sal and Little Bear’s mother were all mixed up with each other on Blueberry Hill.  Both bear mother and human mother have the same reaction, this is not my child, who is this and where is my child?   It doesn’t take long for each mother to find her correct child.
Throughout the story the words kuplink, kuplank, kuplunk are repeated,  and they are the noise of the blueberries hitting an empty bucket.  As a read aloud children would have a lot of fun reciting those words.   At the end of the day, the bear momma and cub, and the human momma and child find each other and go home, and all are full of blueberries to get them through the next winter.  It is a simple sweet, funny  story most children would enjoy. 
Robert McCloskey who, also wrote Make Way for Ducklings and Homer Price,  did an excellent job on this book.  It is a children's book that a very young child can enjoy.  There is something peaceful and reassuring about this book. And it shows children what life looked like in the past. 5 out of 5 stars.