Blueberries for Sal

**Lisa Bueno** (0:00)
Okay, our friends, so today we are reading a story, which I'm not sure how this has slipped through my fingers, but it has.
I thought I had read this years ago, but I looked back and I don't see it. So today we're gonna read it. Today's story is called Blueberries for Sal. And this is one of my favorites.

**SPEAKER_2** (0:22)
I grew up with this story.

**Lisa Bueno** (0:25)
I think a lot of mommies and daddies did. So, this story was written by Robert McCloskey.
And he wrote a couple of other important books that we've read too. So we're gonna read today's story because it is blueberry season and the blueberries are out and we love them.

**SPEAKER_3** (0:45)
Are you ready? Today's story is read by mommy and?

**Philip** (0:49)
Philip in the house.

**SPEAKER_3** (0:53)
Here we go.

**Lisa Bueno** (0:55)
When we open the picture, we can see an old fashioned kitchen with the mom and a kid and a whole lot of activity going on.
And it says, one day little Sal went with her mother to Blueberry Hill to pick blueberries. Little Sal brought along her small tin pail, and her mother brought her large tin pail to put berries in. We will take our berries home and can them, said her mother.

**SPEAKER_6** (1:32)
And then sell them?

**Lisa Bueno** (1:33)
And then we'll have food for the winter.
Oh my goodness, a brilliant idea. If you do not know about canning, it isn't-

**SPEAKER_6** (1:42)
They could sell the candy of blueberries, and then they'd have money to buy food.

**SPEAKER_3** (1:47)
That's true.

**Lisa Bueno** (1:48)
But I think they might need more than just a pant, a little pail of blueberries to make that much.

**SPEAKER_3** (1:54)
Don't you think?

**Lisa Bueno** (1:56)
Friends, if you're not familiar with the idea of canning something, it is when you take fresh fruits or vegetables or even meat and you preserve it in liquid, sometimes oil, sometimes water, sometimes vinegar, and then you keep it safe in an airtight container. Yeah.
Little Sal picked three berries and plopped them in her little tin pail.

**SPEAKER_5** (2:25)
Ka-plink, ka-plink, ka-plunk.

**Philip** (2:28)
She picked three more berries and ate them.

**Lisa Bueno** (2:33)
Then she picked more berries and dropped one in the pail.

**SPEAKER_5** (2:38)
Ka-plunk.

**SPEAKER_3** (2:39)
And the rest she ate.

**Lisa Bueno** (2:46)
Then little Sal ate four blueberries out of her pail.
Her mother walked slowly through the bushes picking blueberries as she went and putting them in her pail. Little Sal struggled along behind picking blueberries and eating every single one.

**Philip** (3:12)
At least your teeth will be white?

**SPEAKER_6** (3:14)
Yeah, that's a fun fact. When you eat blueberries, they make your teeth blue.
But when people look at them, they look like they're white.

**Philip** (3:25)
That is true.

**Lisa Bueno** (3:26)
It is a whitening agent. Natural.

**Philip** (3:28)
Yeah.

**Lisa Bueno** (3:29)
Little Sal hurried ahead and dropped a blueberry into her mother's pail. It didn't sound ka-blink because the bottom of the pail was already covered with berries. She reached down inside to get her berry back, though she really didn't mean to. She pulled out a large handful because there were so many blueberries right up close to the one that she had put in. Her mother stopped picking and said, Now, Sal, you run along and pick your own berries. Mother wants to take her berries home and can them for next winter. Her mother went back to her picking, but little Sal, because her feet were tired of standing and walking, sat down in the middle of a large clump of bushes and ate blueberries.
On the other side of Blueberry Hill, little Bear came with his mother to eat blueberries.

**SPEAKER_8** (4:36)
Little Bear, she said, eat lots of berries and grow big and fat.

**Lisa Bueno** (4:53)
Little Bear followed behind his mother as she walked slowly through the bushes, eating berries. And Little Bear stopped now and then to eat berries. And then he had to hustle along to catch up. Because his feet were tired of hustling, he picked out a large clump of bushes and sat right down in the middle and ate blueberries.

**Philip** (5:17)
Over on the other side of the hill, Little Sal ate all the berries she could reach from where she was sitting.

**Lisa Bueno** (5:25)
And then she started out to find her mother. She heard a noise from around the rock and thought, that is my mother walking along.

**SPEAKER_3** (5:38)
But it was a mother crow and her children, they stopped eating blueberries and flew away saying, Gah!