THE BERRY-PICKING MAN

Old Sam, the berry-picking man, smells bad, has terrible manners, and talks to himself all the time. Worse than all that, he seems to like Meggie—in fact, he tells her she’s his favorite. During berry season, which stretches from the wild strawberries of June to the purple grapes of September, the phone will ring and it’s Sam asking for a ride. Meggie’s mother instructs Meggie to get the kettle and meet her in the car. Under protest, she joins her, but soon it becomes more than her mother’s desires that make her climb in the backseat, but her own sympathy for the lonely old man. The simple voice adeptly conveys one of life’s more difficult lessons: caring about someone’s feelings even when you don’t like him. Watercolors, reproduced in shades of gray, mimic the theme of seeing beyond the black and white to understand the whole picture. Without being too heavy-handed or preachy, Buchanan’s story tells of one young girl’s journey towards empathy. Rich and true. (Fiction. 7-10)