Meaningful Bedtime Stories: Jamberry

Author, Bruce Degan, walks our minds through an imaginative berry fantasy. Raspberries, strawberries, blueberries, and more are all a part of most childhood memories. Bruce Degan takes this small, delicious food that connects us all to our inner child and interweaves it with a simple, yet memorable tale of a rhyming bear on an adventure.

Jamberry is a wonderful bedtime story for children up to age six or seven. It would be most appreciated by children ages three to five. Bruce Degan's illustrations seem to animate themselves as if each page has a magical motion that floats directly and seamlessly to the next page. It's lightheartedness and lovable characters will have any child and maybe even a few adults wishing to be a part of "Berryland."

The picture book starts out with the introduction of the two main characters, a little boy in a straw hat and a big, cuddly bear. They dart off across the pages of the book discovering different wondrous places filled with berries. They discover canoes filled with blueberries, blueberry waterfalls, strawberry fields, "strawberry ponies," and "meadows of strawberry jam." They go on to taste and understand the unique flavor of each berry including blackberries and raspberries.

The real excitement comes from the development of "Berryland" itself. The little boy in the straw hat and the big, cuddly bear see a "berryband" and elephants skating on jam. They take part in a main street parade and go up a hot air balloon propelled by a giant raspberry. In the end, fireworks hit the skies and burst into "berry" beautiful displays of firework magic. Each crackle in the sky becomes a burst of blueberries or strawberries as the little boy and big, cuddly bear slide down a raining fountain from the sky of berry wonderment. It is truly a "jam jamboree!"

Along with great illustrations and a fun adventure story, Bruce Degan draws on the use of rhyming to tell this story. This is important for children because it is one of the first ways they demonstrate phonological awareness which is important for proper literacy development. Rhyme is an important part of reading and writing because it helps to show children that words have common sounds and therefore have common letters. If a child learns the word "band" they can more easily learn and spell the word "land" and so on. From Jamberry they also learn that "raspberry," "blueberry," and "strawberry" all have the same endings and therefore are spelled the same. In addition, being able to break apart words and recognize their smaller parts is another important literary skill for young children.

With so much development to conquer in the yearly years for young children, it can be important to read the right books that promote the right skills. Aside from being just plain fun and enjoyable, Jamberry is packed with hidden elements that promote healthy literary skills, love of reading, and, of course, valuable time together with your child. Its a perfect bedtime book to end any child's day.


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