Berry Song, Michaela Goade’s author debut, encourages readers to show gratitude toward nature for all that it provides humans.

A young girl and her grandmother spend a year on a small island where the girl learns the value of forging a gracious and symbiotic relationship with the earth. Together, the girl and her grandma catch fish, find herring eggs to eat, gather seaweed, and more, and in the forest they pick berries. Berries of varying kinds––depending on the year––grow in the forest, and the girl marks the seasons by which berries are available and what food she makes with them. Throughout the year, the grandma reinforces the importance of expressing gratitude for everything nature provides: she and the young girl sing to the world around them as they gather their berries and connect with the earth.

Goade’s illustrations are a combination of watercolor and mixed media, and they visually carry readers through all four seasons as the family collects their berries and sings their songs. Every season focuses on a different set of berries, each with its own unique color story that also reflects the time of year. Visions of the girl and her family making jam from the berries collected are interspersed among sprawling, glowing scenes of nature.

Berry Song published from Little, Brown Books for Young Readers last week! You can also read an interview I did a couple of years ago with Michaela about her illustration process here!

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