Customer Reviews

Blueberries for Sal (Live Oak Readalong)(Book + CD)

5 star:		(84)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Little Sal and her mother go to Blueberry hill to pick berries, and they plan to can them as preserves for the winter. Little Sal soons starts eating all the berries she picks, plus some from her mother's pail. Encouraged to go off to find berries to pick by herself, mother and Sal become separated. On the other side of the mountain, Little Bear and his mother are coming to eat all the blueberries they can to get as fat as possible so they can survive the winter. They, too, get separated.

Soon, Little Sal stumbles onto following mother bear and Little Bear is following Sal's mother. Eventually, the mothers discover the mistake, back away in shyness from the other's child, and look for their own offspring. Along the way, the children run into bird mothers and their families as well. Everyone goes home with the correct mother, and the last drawing has Little Sal with her mother in an old-fashioned kitchen with a wood stove working on the preserves.

The story is gently and beautifully told, and wonderfully complemented by the illustrations (also drawn by Mr. McClosky).

It is a good introduction for children to the way that all human and animal families work, the need to prepare for the future, and that one has to pay attention to where one is going. It will also interest them in blueberry picking, which is a wonderful family occupation. It is also very heart-warming the way Mr. McClosky has taken the potential fright out of a situation where a child has wandered off and run into a mother bear. The child can draw her or his own lesson that they would not want that to happen to them, rather than having the story provide terror.

Mr. McClosky has expressed a benign but significant role to nature that will serve families well. I wonder if he ever visited the Galapagos, because the animals there and the people act much like in this story.

Overcome your disbelief stalls about how children can learn from stories with this outstanding book. I rate it one of my top five of all time for younger children. It was a favorite of all four of our children. I hope it will be for you and your children and grandchildren, as well.

Think of this story the next time you eat some blueberry preserves.

A children's book about a little girl named Sal who goes up into the hills to pick blueberries with her mother and eats as many blueberries as she puts into her pail! She encounters a mother bear and her cub also picking blueberries; but, soon the little cub is trailing Sal's mother while Sal is trailing the mother bear. McCloskey's blue and white illustrations are perfect for this story and it resulted in the book being a 1949 Caldecott Honor book (i.e., a runner-up to the Medal winner) for best illustration in a book for children. It is a must for the shelves of any parent of a preschooler or the shelf of any serious student of children literature.

Famed author Robert McCloskey ("Make Way for Ducklings," "One Morning in Maine," and others) wrote and illustrated this gently humorous parallel tale of two moms and their daughters on a blueberry hunt. One pair is human, and the other pair is bear!. As they proceed up opposite sides of rolling hill covered in blueberries, each member of the species copies the other: The moms focus on the task at hand, remembering the harsh winter ahead; the children ("Little Sal" and "Little Bear") focus on the immediate pleasures of eating blueberries--so much so, that each gets lost.

In a deftly portrayed switch, McCloskey shows the Little Bear following Little Sal's mom, and Little Sal following the Little Bear's mom. The two lost children are unafraid of following the mismatched grown-ups (ok, so McCloskey takes some liberties in this very light book). Eventually the two moms turn around and see who is following: Little Bear's mother discovers Sal and turns away: ("She was old enough to be shy of people, even a very small person like Little Sal.") Meanwhile, Little Sal's mom discovers Little Bear, and the mother back away: ("She was old enough to be shy of bears, even very small bears like Little Bear.") Each pair reunites and returns home, with an adventure and berries to savor over the winter.

McCloskey's deep blue-black drawings complement the appealing symmetry and innocence of the book, and the period furnishings, uncluttered landscape, and fashions add to the book's sentimental and enduring attraction. This is a very good bedtime story for little ones who can appreciate an affectionate and tender book.

Blueberries for Sal is a favorite book from childhood and is still one of my favorite books to this very day. This book is about a young girl who finds herself caught in a wild adventure while she is picking blueberries with her mother. It is a perfect book to sit down and read together as a family, and is a story both children and parents can relate to. I will never forget listening to my mother read, eating blueberries, and singing kurplink, kurplank, kurplunk.

OK, I have to admit that my review is probably completely unnecessary in view of the fact that there are already 55 positive ones but... I have vowed to make notes on all of the library books we check out each week so that, should I have a book faintly perched on the edge of my mind, I will be able to scan back through my reviews until I find the one I am remembering. That said, this book has been the naptime request of my 4 year old for several days and she "read" it to a pillow on the sofa just yesterday. She especially loves the phrase "Where, oh where, is my child?" She got that one dead-on. This is an excellent book for retelling and could be acted out very successfully in a short dramatic play in kindergarten. The plot is simple and fun and leads to great discussions about how humans prepare for winter (gathering the harvest, preserving foods by canning them) vs. animals who hibernate (that would be the bear). This book is, of course, need I say it???? A winner. You won't be disappointed if you purchase this one. And little Sal (Sally? It's a girl) is as cute as a button. With such wonderful 1940's illustrations, and a warm message, this book is a cozy reminder of days gone by.

My daughters and I love this book. I've been a fan of McCloskey since I was a kid myself, and I was pleased to be able to find this book re-released for my own children. It's a classic, and one that belongs on the shelf of any parent with wee ones.

The story is simple, two mothers (human and bear) take their children out berry picking, where the children wander off, and manage to switch places. The pictures are charming, the plot is lovely, the text suitable for a young reader to read themselves, or for younger ones to have read to them. All in all a wonderful children's classic, don't hesitate to buy it.

Blueberry Hill must be a wonderful place. Sal and his mother get to go blueberry hunting there, to find enough to can for the following winter.

Sal, a little girl of about five or six years, goes up the hill in search of the blueberries. Along the way, she tends to eat more than she finds, knowing a good thing when she tastes it.

Meanwhile, Little Bear and his mother are doing the same thing, on the other side of the hill.

Sal wanders off, looking for her mother. Little Bear, too, strays from the path. Both lost, they each go hither and far. Their two separate adventures converge as they discover the mother of the other, surprising the mom.

"Blueberries for Sal" shows how all mothers are concerned for their children, and how all will look for them when they are lost. In typical Robert McCloskey fashion, the pictures are richly detailed, illuminating the imagination as he tells a gentle story.

Readers who loved, "Make Way for Ducklings," will see this as a good partner book. Unlike "Make Way for Ducklings," though is that in "Blueberries for Sal" there is more storytelling and less poetic sounding text. Both work marvelously.

I fully recommend "Blueberries for Sal" by Robert McCloskey.

Anthony Trendl
editor, HungarianBookstore.com

This is the story of a little girl that goes blueberry picking with her mother. She is helping her pick blueberries but she is more concerned with eating them then she is with keeping them so her mother can make things with them. At the same time a mother bear was picking blueberries with her cub too stock up for the winter. The cub was doing the same thing as Sal and eating the blueberries faster then he was picking them. The cub and Sal did not follow their mothers. They just wondering off eating there merry way around the mountain. Eventually Sal and the cub end up all mixed up and with the wrong mothers and they set out to get with the right ones again.
I love this book. It is a great tale and it is so much fun to read over and over again. The pictures are great and so realistic. I think this really is a good book for children to read and I think it is one that they would really enjoy reading too. This is definitely a book that I want for my class collection and I think the author did a really good job at making this book fun and full of adventure.

The original "Are You My Mother?" book and a classic through and through. In this classic tale the ever androgynous looking Sal and her mother go blueberry picking in the wild outdoors. Sal, voracious for blueberries, loses her mother and attaches herself to a mother bear, just as the bear's child loses its mother and attaches itself to Sal's. The swap is easily cleared up and in the end no harm is done. Sal's mother, seeing that her child is a baby bear and not her own kid, doesn't seem particularly alarmed by the odd turn of events. She is wary of the bear (a wise thing to be) but finds her own child quickly and easily. This is a charming little story. Sweet and simple. McCloskey's illustrations and text have lasted for at least fifty years, and will undoubtedly last another fifty. Some scenes are absolutely entrancing as well. As Sal walks around a large boulder in search of her misplaced parent, McCloskey's lines display a real sense of human movement. This is such a charming story that I would recommend it to anyone anytime. It is rare to meet the ageless text, but in this book you have exactly that.

Having grown up in the part of Maine this book is set in, and having had many days as a child Sal's age picking blueberries and eating them, I can tell you that this book captures perfectly the feeling of such a day. I can put myself into the picture and be carried back to the low scrub-filled woods behind my grandmother's house, the sun warm on my clothes, and bushes around me so filled with blueberries you could fill a pail without moving. I can hear the clink of berries in a nearly empty pail, as Sal did. I never ran into a bear, but I can almost feel like I did, from reading this book. I'm glad to say my young city dwelling son loves this book also, and it's nice to be able to share part of my past with him through it.