Thursday, June 30, 2011

Childhood Thrills (June 2011)



Childhood Thrills is a feature that recalls books I read in my childhood or adolescence that were special to me or "haunt" me in some way. I don't intend to re-read & review them, just simply share my memories and the feelings they evoke.


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A Taste of Blackberries by Doris Buchanon Smith.

With the summer months here in our laps, I thought I would recount a book that reminds me of the season.  My teacher, Miss McConnell, read this to our 4th grade class.  I don't remember all of the characters, but I remember the sadness and the lessons and also that Miss McConnell was a little mysterious regarding this story.  My friend Susan and I quizzed her until we came to the conclusion that someone dies.  I remember walking home from school discussing it with Susan and we figured out that it probably wasn't the main character since it was written in first person.  I remember clearly that we joked about it, althought the subject matter was grim.  But we weren't laughing at the characters or the events, just that we couldn't envision the teller of the story saying "I died!"  Perhaps we were also laughing in order to make the tale easier to deal with.  We found a piece of humor so we grabbed onto it.

In researching this book, a lot of people commented that they have read it to their children to help them deal with death and have used it as a way to start conversations about the subject.  

Everytime I pick berries I think of this story.  This book for me, represents the saying about never forgetting how a person made them feel.  I don't recall all the events in A Taste of Blackberries, but I will never forget how it made me feel. 



1 comments:

bibliophile brouhaha said...

Beautiful post! I love it - reminded me of 'Blueberries for Sal' and 'The Runaway Bunny' - really like these posts!

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