Blueberries for the Queen - Hardcover

Kindergarten-Grade 3–It's 1942 and William's mom has just confirmed that a real queen has moved into an estate near their New England farm. Much to his older brother's amusement, William imagines the woman doing her errands in cape and gown. He also frets over his inability to contribute anything to the war effort, so when Dad suggests that picking blueberries is equally important as "peace work," William decides to try and chase some of the queen's worries away by presenting her with a basket of his most impressive berries. A kind lady (Princess Juliana of the Netherlands) invites him into the house and agrees that he should meet the queen. The grandmotherly woman (Queen Wilhelmina) is not what William expected, but he is delighted with the gracious reception he receives and returns home bursting with excitement. Based on John Paterson's actual experience (described in a historical note), this lengthy picture book draws a rather romanticized vision of farm life in the '40s and presents a hopeful story that mitigates the despairing events of the times. The banter between William and his supercilious older brother rings a bit more true than Dad's homespun philosophizing, but the innocence and naïveté of the place and time shine through. Jeffers's watercolor-and-ink illustrations perfectly juxtapose scenes of domestic reality with the boy's wistful daydreams of knights and heroic quests. Pair this earnest tale with Shulamith Levey Oppenheim's The Lily Cupboard (HarperTrophy, 1995) as they both share the same time period and rural locale, but are two fascinatingly diverse experiences set on opposite sides of the Atlantic.–Carol Ann Wilson, Westfield Memorial Library, NJ
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