White is for Blueberry by George Shannon, illustrated by Laura Dronzek

White is for Blueberry by George Shannon, illustrated by Laura Dronzek

Rating: 5 stars

We all thought this book title was a little silly when we saw it.  WHITE is for BLUEberry?!  How could that be?!  my kids asked their uber-incredulous-silly voices.  So we had to check it out (of course).

Turns out it is a total gem!  And well timed, too.

This book is a tale of perspective, or perhaps of before and after, of seeing things not for what they are but what they were and what they could be...  On the first page is what something likes like in the beginning, and then you turn the page and you see what that something looks like at the end.  For example, there's a bird that starts off pink as a baby and then grows up to be black.  And the sweet potato looks brown when the skin is on, but then orange when you look into it and dig in.

Our tomatoes are yellow, green, then red.

But the blueberry example is by far my favorite, because on our own deck are garden is growing well.  Tomatoes are by far my favorite, and we have five different types of tomatoes growing at five different heights, some bursting through the tops of their cages already.

As I've said before (here), I garden for many reasons, but I love that my kids have to be patient as the vegetables grow.  They know we can pop over to the grocery store and buy tomatoes, but there is definitely something special about growing your own, taking care of the tomatoes, appreciating how the weather affects them, and how they are really pretty imperfect (but more delicious) than the ones we buy at the store.

Anyway, in the book Shannon has a picture of a white flower that soon grows to be a blueberry.  So white really is for blueberry.  Who knew?  I love how this book helps me to teach my kids to have a good perspective, to think out of the box, to look again--and then maybe once more!--and see something new and unique.