The First Strawberries book review

Bibliography

Bruchac, J. 1993. The First Strawberries: A Cherokee Story. Ill. by Anna Vojtech. New York, NY: Puffin Books. ISBN 9780140564099

Plot Summary

The story begins with a man and a woman falling in love. One day, when the man returns from hunting, he finds his wife picking flowers instead of having his meal prepared. Feeling unappreciated, the wife leaves the husband behind. As the man tries to reach her wife, unable to catch up, the sun appears to the husband, takes pity on him, and decides to help him. The sun then begins to shine its rays as brightly as possible in hopes of blooming the perfect berries to attract the woman's attention long enough for the husband to catch up. After the woman continues to walk past raspberries, blueberries, and blackberries, her attention is finally caught by strawberries. As she spends time picking strawberries for her and her husband, her husband catches up and apologizes to her. In return, she accepts his apology by sharing the strawberries with him, thus signifying the meaning behind strawberries for the Cherokee people: “To this day, when the Cherokee people eat strawberries, they are reminded to always be kind to each other.”

Critical Analysis

This retelling of a Cherokee legend is beautifully written and illustrated, with the language and illustrations presenting an origin-like theme of how strawberries came to be.

The time within this story is represented as being at the beginning of mankind because of the illustrations that constantly show a natural, not-yet populated land. Also, the man and the woman are shone to be alone with no other humans, thus further setting an origin-like tone to the story.

Furthermore, the language within in the story illustrates this by keeping the man and woman nameless throughout the story. This implies that they are the only two humans in the world. Thus, this allows the characters to represent the origin-like theme throughout the story.

Review Excerpt(s)

• Publisher’s Weekly review: “Spare text, an uncomplicated story line and gentle illustrations keep this quiet but resonant tale accessible to even the youngest child” (August 30, 1993).
• Kirkus Reviews: "Complete harmony of text and pictures: altogether lovely" (May 20, 2010). 

Connections

• This story would be great to read to children/ students to show how people should be kind to one another. 
• This story would be a great conversation starter with children to talk about forgiveness and the value of friendship.