Blueberry Girl [Hardcover]

Neil Gaiman (Author), Charles Vess (Illustrator)

Book Description

Age Level: 1 and up

This is a prayer for a blueberry girl . . .

A much-loved baby grows into a young woman: brave, adventurous, and lucky. Exploring, traveling, bathed in sunshine, surrounded by the wonders of the world. What every new parent or parent-to-be dreams of for her child, what every girl dreams of for herself.

Let me go places that we've never been, trust and delight in her youth.

Nationally bestselling author Neil Gaiman wrote Blueberry Girl for a friend who was about to become the mother of a little girl. Here, he and beloved illustrator Charles Vess turn this deeply personal wish for a new daughter into a book that celebrates the glory of growing up: a perfect gift for girls embarking on all the journeys of life, for their parents, and for everyone who loves them.

Give her all these and a little bit more, gifts for a blueberry girl.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In a magical blessing for unconventional girls, Gaiman (The Graveyard Book) addresses the ladies of light and ladies of darkness and ladies of never-you-mind, asking them to shelter and guide an infant girl as she grows. Help her to help herself,/ help her to stand,/ help her to lose and to find./ Teach her we're only as big as our dreams./ Show her that fortune is blind. Sinuous, rococo lines—the flowing hair, drooping boughs, winding paths that inspired the pre-Raphaelites—spread their tendrils throughout Vess's (The Ladies of Grace Adieu) full-bleed spreads, potent mixtures of the charms of Arthur Rackham, Maxfield Parrish and Cecily Barker's flower fairies. An Art Nouveau–ish font in a blueberry color compounds the sense of fantasy. On each page a different girl—short, tall, white, brown, younger, older—runs or jumps or swims, accompanied by animals meant to guard and protect her. Fans of Gaiman and Vess will pounce on this creation; so too will readers who seek for their daughters affirmation that sidesteps traditional spiritual conventions. All ages. (Mar.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From School Library Journal

PreS Up—Gaiman and Vess worked together on Stardust (HarperCollins, 2000), the award-winning fantasy that became a film in 2007. One can count on them for a fresh approach to the conventions of a genre. This New Age "prayer" for a yet-to-be-born child is no exception, although the combination of a picture-book format with concepts that require adult understanding may cause confusion or boredom in youngsters ("Keep her from…./Nightmares at three or bad husbands at thirty,/…. Dull days at forty, false friends at fifteen-"). Visually, the book also struggles with a split personality. One scene, in which animals peer at a girl in jeans and dreadlocks, is rendered in watercolor, defined by clean outlines, for a contemporary, realistic look. Another view of naked babies sleeping in flower petals is created with a hazy focus, calling to mind Jessie Willcox Smith or Elsa Beskow's Peter in Blueberry Land (Floris, 1988). The dedication indicates that this poem was written for a pregnant friend; it seeks to ward off all sorts of fairy-tale trouble: "Ladies of light and ladies of darkness and ladies of never-you-mind…. Keep her from spindles and sleeps at sixteen/Let her stay waking and wise." The "ladies" are draped in clouds and cloaks, sunsets and rainbows. The racial characteristics, hair color, and age of the girl change from page to page, presumably for an "everygirl" effect. This may resonate with people purchasing baby presents, as Seuss's Oh, the Places You'll Go! (Random, 1990) strikes a chord at graduation. The card, however, should read "Mother."—Wendy Lukehart, Washington DC Public Library
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 1 and up
  
• Hardcover: 32 pages
• Publisher: HarperCollins; First Edition edition (March 10, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060838086
• ISBN-13: 978-0060838089
• Product Dimensions: 10.3 x 10.4 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (48 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #55,916 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I make things up and write them down. Which takes us from comics (like SANDMAN) to novels (like ANANSI BOYS and AMERICAN GODS) to short stories (some are collected in SMOKE AND MIRRORS) and to occasionally movies (like Dave McKean's MIRRORMASK or the NEVERWHERE TV series, or my own short film A SHORT FILM ABOUT JOHN BOLTON).

In my spare time I read and sleep and eat and try to keep the blog at www.neilgaiman.com more or less up to date.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

118 of 124 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A song for a baby, January 16, 2010

By 

Mariana Chaffee "always reading" (Kirkland, WA USA) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Blueberry Girl (Hardcover)

Ladies of Anapest, Ladies of Iamb
Lightly your feet skip along
Here is a lilt for a Blueberry Girl,
A wish written into a song.

Oh, we all wish our babes to be
Both good and kind, to have
Courage and honor and joy.
We wish all these things for
Our Blueberry Girls,
And we wish just as much for each Boy.

I've purchased this book
For my Blueberry Girls,
Now grown into Ladies of note.
Glorious women,
Well set on their paths,
They fill both my dreams and my hopes.

Oh Ladies of Doggerel, Ladies of Rhyme,
Of Metaphor, Image and Trope,
Here is a song for a Blueberry Girl,
But I'm Nearing the End Of My Rope.

Ladies, you whisper, you sing, and you chant,
You haunt me awake or a-dream.
Ladies, dear ladies you're driving me mad:
Get out of my head or I'll SCREAM!

47 of 47 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Gift for My Daughter, March 19, 2009

By 

Everett A. Warren (Northeast PA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Blueberry Girl (Hardcover)

I am reluctant to give this book up.

It's Neil Gaiman, and that means words: good words. It's Charles Vess, and that means art: beautiful art.

It's also for girls and women and probably other feminine creatures, and I don't qualify for any of those titles.

However, my daughter... now, for my daughter, this is the perfect gift. Its inspiration and encouragement will be there for her, give her something to look through and keep in mind when I'm not right there to say all the sorts of inspirational and encouraging things a father can say to his daughter. Maybe, when she reads it, she will smile and think kindly of all the times I've said something similar, and maybe, just maybe, she won't roll her eyes like she would when I say those things...

She's nearly a teenager now, and the only problem I really see with this book is that it wasn't around a decade or so ago so I could read it to her over and over through the years...

39 of 39 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars simply lovely, March 11, 2009

By 

Jennifer Newport (Chicago, IL United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Blueberry Girl (Hardcover)

The lilt of the rhyme, the excellence of the message for girls and future women, the gentle, beautiful illustrations...these are the reasons that I'll be buying this book for many new moms and young girls. This simple, short poem/story uses good sense, good balance, and good vocabulary. I'm not much of a book reviewer, but, as they say, I know what I like. This goes into the same category as "Oh, The Places You'll Go" as a go-to book as a gift, with a special emphasis on girls. It was clearly written and illustrated by people with a loving respect for the women in their lives. I didn't look at how much of the book is available in preview, but even if the whole book is there, it's still one that I'm glad I have in hardcover...it will be shared, and shared, and shared.