More Blueberries!

by Susan Musgrave, Esperança Melo (Illustrator)

Overview

These young twins can't get enough of their favorite snack—and they aren't the only ones!

With playful rhyming text from award-winning poet Susan Musgrave and gorgeous illustrations by Esperança Melo, this exuberant board book will delight little ones and have everyone happily shouting, "More blueberries!"

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781459807075
Publisher:	Orca Book Publishers
Publication date:	03/01/2015
Pages:	24
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 6.00(h) x 0.50(d)
Lexile:	AD570L (what's this?)
Age Range:	3 Months to 2 Years

About the Author

Susan Musgrave has been nominated for and has received awards in five different categories of writing — poetry, fiction, nonfiction, personal essay, children's writing — and for her work as an editor. She has published many books, including Love You More, More Blueberries and Kiss, Tickle, Cuddle, Hug. Susan lives on Haida Gwaii, British Columbia, and teaches poetry in the Optional Residency MFA in Creative Writing Program at the University of British Columbia.

Esperança Melo is a graduate of Sheridan College's Animation Program and has completed an honors degree in graphic design from George Brown College. She has illustrated and designed several children's books. Esperança was born in the Azores and now lives in Millbrook, Ontario.

Read an Excerpt

Blueberry cheeks, blueberry chin
Blueberry teeth, blueberry grin

Blueberry fingers, blueberry nose
Blueberry lips, blueberry toes

Yummy! Tasty!
More blueberries!

Editorial Reviews

04/13/2015
The duo behind Love You More (2014) returns with an enthusiastic celebration of blueberries, starring two children (and a few animals) who can’t get enough of them. The inherent messiness of eating blueberries figures prominently: “Blueberry fingers,/ blueberry nose./ Blueberry lips,/ blueberry toes,” writes Musgrave as Melo’s warm acrylics show the boy and girl leaving blue hand- and footprints in their wake. An interlude in which cats, crows, frogs, and bears express their fervor for blueberries (“Frogs hop on blueberries,/ pop, hop, pop”) disrupts the repeating structure of the rhymes that precede and follow it, but it’s a small quibble in a joyful story. Up to age 3. (Apr.)

Publishers Weekly

"A fun read aloud for toddler time because of the rhyming text and the expressive language."

Resource Links

"A brightly illustrated, sturdy little board book featuring that most luscious and irresistible of all summer fruits...Melo's bold and beautiful acrylics on gessoed paper are a perfect match for Musgrave's text as she depicts the blueberry stained twins eating, drinking and playing their way through blueberry concoctions of all sorts. More Blueberries has great visual and tactile appeal and should prove a success with small listeners (as well as being hardy enough to resist damage from little hands and teeth!) Highly Recommended."

CM Magazine

07/01/2015
Baby/Toddler—In short rhyming sentences, this book features two siblings who eat their way through several bowls of blueberries, earning "blueberry fingers, blueberry nose./Blueberry lips, blueberry toes." When the bowl is empty, the typeface increases with the demand for "MORE BLUEBERRIES!" The lack of a "please" will be overlooked, as the sheer joyfulness of the text and the vibrant acrylic paintings (appropriately smeared with bright blue) is infectious. Pair with Vera B. Williams's More, More, More Said the Baby (HarperCollins, 1990) while teaching babies and their caregivers the American Sign Language word for "more."

School Library Journal

2015-04-01
Two siblings overindulge in the titular fruit. A brother and sister (probably, judging by hairstyle and clothing) get their hands on too many blueberries in this board book. The pair eats the blueberries straight, then move on to eating them in pancakes and muffins. These tots make a bit of a mess, even letting some animals in on the purple-stained fun. After a bath, the kids are sent to bed. Readers might wonder whether Musgrave was aiming to set some sort of record for making parents say "blueberry" till they're blue in the face. She combines "blueberry" with simple, toddler-friendly vocabulary for an infectious chant: "Blueberry cheeks, / blueberry chin. // Blueberry teeth, / blueberry grin." Occasional double-page spreads stop the momentum with all-caps shouts for "MORE BLUEBERRIES!" Melo extends the theme with a blue-and-yellow-striped shirt for the little boy, a blueberry-patterned dress for the girl, and copious smears of blueberry—on cheeks, chins, and noses, as well as foot-, hand-, and pawprints. Sharp-eyed readers will notice that the frog, bear, and crow that join the fun may be imaginary, if stuffed toys and bedside book are taken as clues. A little monomaniacal, but a great read-aloud that supports both vocabulary building and phonemic awareness. (Board book. 6 mos -2)

Kirkus Reviews