When a young patron toddles over to my lap with a picture book in hand, I know we will be good friends. Today one of my favorite little patrons sat on the floor pulling out picture book after picture book until he found one of my favorites. As I was sitting on the floor talking to his mama, he plopped into my lap with Blueberries for Sal knowing full well that I needed no invitation to start reading it with him.
If I were asked for the ten picture books that are not, for any reason, to be missed, this would always be on my list. The story itself is completely charming and a joy entirely on its own. The illustration, however, is not “as good as the story.” The illustration is in fact absolute perfection.
Sweet little Sal and her mother go up the mountain to pick blueberries. As is wont to happen, Sal enjoys her blueberries so much that she lags behind her mother. At the same time, a mother bear and her little cub come to the same mountain to do some blueberry picking of their own. And, just like Sal and her mother, the bear cub and mama bear get separated. Imagine her surprise when Sal discovers that the blueberry picker she is following is the mama bear instead of her mother. The story is sweet and gentle and resolves beautifully. But, the real magic is in the illustrations.
McCloskey’s pen and ink drawings are masterpieces. The scenes with Sal and her mother are done with fine lines and light texture. The scenes on the mountain are done with a heavier hand and communicate the scale and heft of the trees and the bears. Sal is timelessly adorable, and the mother is beautiful in her ordinariness. The kitchen in which they can the blueberries is like a snapshot in time. Sal standing on the chair in her leather shoes with eyelet cutouts gives the scene authenticity and a sense of old-fashioned loveliness. That is a scene that I want to live in.
While the kitchen scene is my favorite, I smile every time I see the expression on the mother bear’s face when Sal realizes that that is not her mama and she tries to offer the bear her blueberries.
Find this picture book and keep it. This is a work of art.