Claire Holland - Berry Song

Berry Song

by Michaela Goade

Picture Book Review with Drama & Literacy Learning Activities

by Claire Holland

This delightful picture book is written by Michaela Goade, an American illustrator from the Tlinglit and Haida tribes. It starts by welcoming fellow foragers to be sure to venture into the forest with a trusted adult who knows the plant life in the environment well-as not all living things are safe to eat.

This invitation leads the reader on a journey with a young girl and her grandmother as they travel the water to arrive at the bountiful forest, rich with berries of all types that they will use to sustain them year round.

Gorgeous illustrations mark the passage of time and space as the two revisit the forest at different points of the year, learning where to find a variety of berries, marking their names through song. As they gather the fruit, the grandmother reminds her granddaughter that when they venture into nature, they are engaging in a relationship with it. “We take care of the land as the land takes care of us.”

The ritual of being introduced to the forest and its gifts by an elder is reinforced by the closing pages of the text in which the granddaughter in the story, now a grown woman, takes the hand of her younger sister and leads her through the portal of trees to teach her the berry song. This callback to the beginning of the book invites the reader to consider their own role in preserving a relationship with nature, in passing along knowledge so that it will not become lost.

The language in the text is sublime. Rich descriptions of nature, rife with similes and adjectives, complement the lyrical listing of the berries in the berry song. The call and answer motif of the grandmother articulating the rules of relationship with nature that is scattered throughout also provides wonderful opportunities for whole group engagement in the read aloud.

For those curious about the berries mentioned in the book, the author’s note provides photographs of the berries and a personal account of her experience gathering them in berry season in Alaska.

As a drama educator, here are a few potential exploration options that came to mind:

Activities:

Berry Song Drama Connections

As a literacy teacher, here are a few guiding questions that might support engagement with the book:

Activities:

Berry Song Literacy Connections

Note:

When engaging in dramatic play with a text whose main characters may not reflect the identities of the students you teach, it’s important to be mindful of the choices you make so that you do not appropriate the voices or culture of the people represented in the work. Here is a guide that might help you as you devise learning opportunities for students based off of books about Indigenous people or written by Indigenous authors.

In a Good Way: Drama, Dance and Indigenous Studies

Claire Holland is a teacher with the Toronto District School Board. She has extensive experience teaching Drama and Dance as a classroom teacher and Arts Prep provider. She has developed teacher resources around finding entry points into Drama and Dance, strategies for cross-curricular integration of the Arts, and strategies for using Drama to promote Critical Literacy and Financial Literacy.. Claire has been an instructor of the Drama AQ at OISE/UT and a course director for the Drama teachable in the Faculty of Education at York University. Most recently, she conducted a 3 part learning series for Drama teachers at the TDSB who are new to the subject area and need support in understanding the core conventions, planning and assessment.