Berry Song
BERRY SONG
by Michaela Goade
Little, Brown and Company | 2022
Written and illustrated by Caldecott winner Michaela Goade, Berry Song is the story of a young girl learning from her grandmother to gather food from the earth. It is deeply grounded in Sheet’ká, or Sitka, Alaska, where Goade lives as her ancestors did before her. Bright painterly watercolor illustrations bring an air of magic that is deeply grounded in place and the connection between people and the earth. This story is a love letter from and to Tlingit culture, traveling through the seasons with a song of berry names as a refrain. Readers will be inspired to deepen their connections with the natural world, and maybe share some berries, too!
Discussion questions
Connect: Have you ever picked berries? Who did you pick with? What types of berries did you pick?
What are some of the reasons the girl and her grandmother sing to the berries, the forest, the land and the ocean around them?
Why do you think some of the pictures show the girl with branches for arms or leaves for hair?
Are people part of nature? Why or why not?
Vocabulary
Gunalchéesh: thank you (Pronunciation guide on YouTube, 1:52m)
Forager: a person who searches for wild foods
Ancestor: a person from whom one is descended (typically more remote than a grandparent)
Video content
Read aloud (YouTube, 7:05m)
Molly of Denali (animated PBS kids show set in Alaska) full episode on berry picking / herring eggs. (YouTube 26:06m, at 12:25-14:00 it has live action of kids IDing plants in the wild using indexes in reference books)
Publisher content
Book Trailer video (YouTube, (45s)
Activities
See images of each type of berries on the Alaska Berry Blog.
What to do with berries - choose a type of berries and use the cookbooks in your school library or In Berry Song they make many different things with the berries they collect. Use your school library’s cookbook collection or the internet to research recipes you could make that use berries.
Connect to the land around you - Go on a walk around your school building, and bring a plant ID book (or the app PictureThis) with you. Try to identify as many plants in the landscape around you as you can.
Watercolor art - In Michaela Goade’s illustrations, she uses watercolor to create the images and in many of them you see people becoming plants. Create a watercolor painting of a plant that has human features (like a face, arms, or hands) or a painting of a person with plant features (like roots, leaves or bark).
Painting with berries - berries themselves can be turned into paint! Grind, smash or rub them on watercolor paper and see what kinds of different colors you can create with a variety of berries!
Music - write a tune for the berry song! Here are the lyrics:
Salmonberry, Cloudberry, Blueberry, Nagoonberry
Huckleberry, Soapberry, Strawberry, Crowberry
Thimbleberry, Swampberry, Bogberry, Chalkberry
Lingonberry, Raspberry, Bunchberry, Cranberry
Michaela Goade
Author/Illustrator
www.michaelagoade.com
Michaela Goade is the award winning author and illustrator of many books, including We Are Water Protectors and I Sang You Down from the Stars. Michaela is an enrolled member of the Tlingit & Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska. She has spent the last few years focusing on Indigenous KidLit, working with Indigenous authors and tribal organizations in the creation of beautiful and much-needed books. She lives on an island in Alaska.
Companion books
A SONG OF FRUTAS
Margarita Engle,
illus. by Sara Palacios
Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2021
WE WAIT FOR THE SUN
Dovey Johnson Roundtree and Katie McCabe,
illus. by Raissa Figueroa
Roaring Brook Press, 2021
WILD BERRIES
Julie Flett
Simply Read Books, 2014