Rating: 
Summary: A True Classic Child's Book
Review: Blueberries for Sal has always been a favorite of mine, and now my three-year-old son is enjoying the book! We've read it bunches of times, and now he recognizes it at the library when we see it. We've checked out the audio tape a couple of times, and have it right now. I think I'm going to have to renew it because it's all he wants to listen to in the car! On one side is a nice reading of the story, and on the other, little songs, games and comments from the readers. Some are familiar, such as "Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear, Turn Around" and "The Bear Went Over The Mountain" and some are new, such as "No Bears Out Tonight". It's a better value than many books on tape, which only have the story and not the extras like this one does.
Rating:
Summary: Timeless and classic book, perfect for family bonding
Review: 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.
Rating: 
Summary: The Beauty of Simplicity
Review: Both the story and blue-ink illustrations are simple but charming. There's nothing mythopoetic here, but there is something magical about just being out in the wide-open country picking berries (we're going to pick wild blackberries today!). An excellent short bedtime story of the "light reading" variety.
Rating:
Summary: The Beauty of Simplicity
Review: Both the story and blue-ink illustrations are simple but charming. There's nothing mythopoetic here, but there is something magical about just being out in the wide-open country picking berries (we're going to pick wild blackberries today!). An excellent short bedtime story of the "light reading" variety.
Rating:
Summary: I Found MyThrill...On Blueberry Hill
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: A Much Loved Classic
Review: For our family, each summer we read "Blueberries for Sal" together. Then we drop the blueberries that we've bought (sadly not picked) into a tin bucket to listen to the kuplink, kuplank, kuplunk, and end with making blueberry jam to put aside for winter.It's something my older children remember with delight, and something my youngest is newly excited about. The illustrations are beautiful, especially of Sal and Sal's Mother in the kitchen.
Rating:
Summary: An adorable classic adventure story
Review: It's a classic case of mistaken identity when, while on a hunt for blueberries, two very different mommies and two very different children get separated and all mixed up. Or are they really that different? With McCloskey's incredible eye for natural detail from a child's point of view, this story tells a hilarious tale about a human mother and child (the eponymous Sal) who go blueberry hunting and run into their bear counterparts, who are storing up food for hibernation. Not only are the sound effects hilarious (my son loves to chant the KERPLINK! KERPLANK! KERPLUNK! part along with me) the story also teaches a lot about comparing and contrasting characteristics in the natural world, and the striking and original blue-and-white illustrations make this book unique. Your preschooler is sure to delight in it, and your first grader is still going to love it and be able to draw more sophisticated comparisons and conclusions from the story. Sure to be a bedtime favorite for many years - it has been in my househould!
Rating:
Summary: Beautiful Symmetry of Nature, Family, and Nurture!
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: A Timeless Classic
Review: My mother bought me this book when I was six-years-old through the Weekly Reader program in the 1960s and I STILL have it, if that gives you any idea on how great of a book this is. It's such a cute story of how Sal and the baby ber eat blueberries all over the mountain and get their mothers mixed up. It's just another celebration of being a child and the wonders that it brings. A true classic that belongs in every elementary classroom.
Rating:
Summary: This book's got class
Review: 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.
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