Every little girl should be issued a copy of Blueberry Girl on the day that she’s born. A lyrical poem that’s an enchanted wish for a life full of blessings, “what every new parent or parent-to-be dreams of for her child, what every girl dreams of for herself”, Neil Gaiman’s latest children’s picture book echoes the hopefulness of Sleeping Beauty and the gifts granted by the fairy godmothers who attended the newborn princess’ christening. (Unlike that classic fairy tale, though, no wicked fairy intrudes on Blueberry Girl with a curse.)
The book’s elegant watercolour illustrations are by master fantasy artist Charles Vess, whose traditional style of fairy tale art casts as much of a spell as the words they illuminate. Each spread is ripe with images of blueberries, idealized scenes of nature, and magical symbols, with the “blueberry girl” morphing in age and appearance from page to page, allowing girls of all types to identify with her. Smaller children will likely get more out of the pictures than the words, which employ more adult-level language and concepts, but will still thoroughly enjoy the large, flowing blue font and lullaby-like cadence of the poetry as it’s read aloud.
In “A Note From Neil”, Gaiman best describes the delightful Blueberry Girl, and how it was written for his goddaughter-to-be, Tash, as a favor for her mother, musician Tori Amos, a longtime friend of Gaiman’s who nicknamed her expected baby “the blueberry”:
Hello.
You’re probably wondering what kind of book this is.
This is the kind of book that comes about when a friend phones you and says, “I’ll be having a baby in a month. Would you write her a poem? A sort of prayer, maybe? We call her the Blueberry…” And you think, Yes, actually. I would.
I wrote the poem. When the baby was born, they stopped calling her the Blueberry and started calling her Natashya, but they pinned up the handwritten Blueberry girl poem beside her bed.
I kept a copy at my house, taped to a filing cabinet. And when friends read it, they said things like “Please, can I have a copy for my friend who is going to be giving birth to a daughter?” and I wound up copying it out for people, over and over.
I wasn’t going to let it be published, not ever. It was private, and written for one person, even if I did seem to be spending more and more of my time handwriting or printing out nice copies for mothers-to-be and for babies.
Then artist Charles Vess (whom I had collaborated with on Stardust) read it.
And somehow, it all became simple. I made a few phone calls. We decided to make some donations to some charities. And Charles began to draw, and then to paint, taking the poem as a starting point and then making something universal and beautiful.
On his blog he said, “Taking Neil’s lovely poetic meditation on the inherent joys of a mother-daughter relationship and developing a compelling narrative impulse without robbing the poem of its highly symbolic nature was an interesting conceptual journey.” Which I think is Charles for “It wasn’t easy to make that poem into a picture book.” He did an astonishing job, but I still worried. I stopped worrying the day the assistant editor at HarperChildrens, who was herself pregnant, called me to let me know that she’d got the artwork in, and read it, and then started crying in the office.
It’s a book for mothers and for mothers-to-be. It’s a book for anyone who has, or is, a daughter. It’s a prayer and a poem, and now it’s a beautiful book.
I hope you enjoy it. I’m really proud of it. And I hope this means I don’t have to copy it out any longer…
Neil
Part of the proceeds from the book will be donated to RAINN, Gaiman noted in his blog, “because I originally wrote Blueberry Girl for Tori and her as-yet-unborn-daughter, and that seemed like the right thing to do.” RAINN is an anti-sexual assault organization that Tori Amos is a founding member of and has been one of the main spokeswomen for, so your purchase will not only make the future brighter for little girls, it will help heal those that weren’t as lucky as the carefree everygirl represented in Blueberry Girl.
Publishers Weekly enthuses, “Fans of Gaiman and Vess will pounce on this creation; so too will readers who seek for their daughters affirmation that sidesteps traditional spiritual conventions.” Blueberry Girl is truly a must-have book for girls at any stage of life, and a sweet treat for readers.
Recommended Reading Level: All Ages.
Order now at Amazon.com:
Blueberry Girl (Canada)
Blueberry Girl (US)
Online bonus:
Blueberry Girl — Listen to Gaiman read the entire picture book online, in the book’s animated trailer. The audio is from one of the readings the author did during his Graveyard Book reading tour.
Blueberry Girl is distributed by HarperCollins Children’s Books, a division of HarperCollinsCanada and HarperCollins Publishers. For more information on the book and its author, visit the Neil Gaiman website and its related website for young readers, Mouse Circus. Neil Gaiman may also be followed on Twitter.
I think it is a classic. It will cause wiggling, butterfly following delight in the hearts of children and heart pings and tears from sudden memories of lost joy in the eyes of adults, as long as there is the written word to follow. The book will be read so often that the colors and type start to fade, edges frayed and so well loved it will become real.
I’ve shared this discovery with as many people who will listen and will continue to do so until I am no longer.