Review - Blueberries for Sal

Blueberries for Sal
by Robert McCloskey
Date: 1948
Publisher: Puffin
Reading level: C
Book type: picture book
Pages: 64
Format: e-book
Source: library

What happens when Sal and her mother meet a mother bear and her cub? A beloved classic is born!

Kuplink, kuplank, kuplunk! 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! Will each mother go home with the right little one?

(synopsis from Goodreads)

I would probably recommend this book only with a caveat: I don't think it's suitable for kids who live in areas where there are actual bears; it could easily give them the wrong idea.

This classic book is about a little girl who goes picking blueberries with her mother. On Blueberry Hill, there's a bit of a mix-up, and Sal ends up following a mama bear while the little bear ends up following Sal's mother! In the book, there's no bloodshed (of course), and the resolution is cute, though somewhat unrealistic. I'm not sure, given the nature of mama bears in relation to their young, that the bear would take very kindly to seeing that her baby had been replaced with a human; that sounds like a recipe for disaster!

But the pictures are really cute (even if they do scream 1948) and the language is age appropriate, so it's easy to see why this has become a classic. Blueberries for Sal could potentially become a favourite for another generation... but hopefully with some straight talk about the dangers of bears.

Premise: 3/5
Meter: n/a
Writing: 4/5
Illustrations: 4/5
Originality: 4/5

Enjoyment: 3/5

Overall: 3.5 out of 5