The+First+Strawberries

By: Joseph Bruchac Pictures by: Anna Vojtech
 * //The First Strawberries//**



Title: The First Strawberries Author: Joseph Bruchac Illustrator: Anna Vojtech Age Range: 3-5 Years Publisher: Puffin Books Published Date: June 1, 1998 (Reprinted Edition) Language: English Pages: 32 ISBN: 0140564098
 * Biographical Data:**

**Author Biography:** Joseph Bruchac, author of //The First Strawberries,// is a man of many talents. He is a children’s book author, poet, novelist, storyteller, along with being a scholar of Native American Culture. He is a coauthor of the bestselling series, Keepers of the Earth. He has written more than 50 books for adults and children and has been featured in over 500 publications from American Poetry Review to National Geographic.

**Book Sumary:** This book is about a Native American husband and wife. In this book the man gets home from working all day and sees that his wife has not prepared his dinner, but was picking flowers from the field. The woman is excited to show her husband the beauty of the flowers but the man gets very angry with the woman when she shows him the flowers. The woman’s feelings are hurt by the harsh words from her husband and she decides to leave him and begins to walk away. When the man realizes she is not coming back he begins to follow her thinking about how guilty he felt for being angry with his wife. He talks to the sun and the sun helps grow beautiful fruits in the fields in hopes of catching the woman’s eye to make her stop, look at, and taste the fruits so the man could catch up with her. The sun tries two times, with two different fruits, to make the woman stop but she is too angry. Finally, the third time he creates strawberries which cause the woman to stop. She tries the fruit and while she is picking it, the husband is able to catch up to her. She shares the fruit with him and they put their issues behind them to share this new delicious treat.

**Book Review:** This is a wonderful book to read to children. While the age range is 3-5 years, I used it for a lesson with third graders and it was very effective. I don’t see this book as being exciting for children to pick up and read on their own, but I see it as being this book being extremely helpful to use for teaching lessons. This is a good book for younger ages because it has a simple story line, understandable message, and colorful illustrations. It is equally as beneficial for older children because the story line and overall message are both great to talk to children about the deeper meaning and the illustrations in the book are helpful to teach students about connections between illustrations and text.

**Analysis of Literary Element:** A literary element that is important in this story is the illustrations. This book is a simple read for children because it is the deeper meaning of the story and the pictures that is really important. In the story the illustrations display the different moods of the characters deeper than what the words are saying.

In the first picture, you can see the man’s face looking angry even though it is from the side. There are many darker shadows in his picture over him which can also display anger. Just by looking at the picture you can almost feel how angry the man is even without using the text. In comparison, the second picture is brighter and more relaxing. The woman is picking flowers in a field, surrounded by other flowers. She is probably very happy because she is all around the flowers that she likes. There are not many shadows around her, even the sky is bright. The two pictures are side by side in the book which can really show important meaning in the illustration as well as the text. Without the words we might be able to tell that the man is angry while the woman is happy.

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