I hope you’ve had a chance to enjoy this iconic Maine fruit this season. Plucked from a bush, in muffins, crisps, ice cream, donuts – or a story.
Blueberries have a pleasant association for me formed by the children’s book, Blueberries for Sal by Robert McCloskey. This book was published 75 years ago, when I was just learning to read. My family moved from the east coast to the west coast. The book came with me. Not my own copy but the copy I was able to borrow from the public library - often - in the towns I lived in on each coast. My father, a Maine native, enjoyed this bedtime story with us many nights. I could easily imagine myself as Sal. The story raises very special memories for me and fittingly, I now live on a property known as Blueberry Hill with low and high bush blueberries part of the landscape (no bears), and my own tin bucket to kerplink, kerplank, kerplunk.
This past weekend, I toured the exhibit of McCloskey’s illustrations at the Curtis Memorial Library in Brunswick. https://curtislibrary.com/McCloskey/
A highlight was story time with special guest Sarah (Sal) McCloskey reading her father’s stories set in Maine. As I scanned the audience, I reflected on the impact of the books published so many years ago. Three generations of readers were brought together by a public library to celebrate stories created by a masterful storyteller and artist. I was proud to be a participant in this shared experience and a member of the profession that curates and promotes literature for the ages.
Kerplunk,
Nancy E. Crowell
Library Director