Reading Level: 9+
Caldecott Nominee

Freda and her gran pick juicy, sweet blueberries in July. Freda enjoys them as much as she can but worries that she can’t eat them all at once. Gran consoles her and tells her she can make jams and store them in jars. Freda gets excited by that idea, and she collects every sweet memory, person, and thing in a jar. As a result, her home is filled with jars of precious memories. What happens to Freda and her memory jars?

We picked this book for its beautiful cover. The book discusses a child’s desire to store all her sweet memories in a jar. The idea of preserving the past in a jar is interesting. Though the story has a bit of a dark side, it ends reasonably well with Freda willing to move on. The illustrations are gorgeous - we warn you, you might collect your jars.

Memory Jars by Vera Brosgol is a brilliantly illustrated book that narrates an amusing story about a little girl who learns to move on in life while cherishing the past. ( )

A cute little story about making blueberry jam and saving mementos takes a deliciously dark and bizarre turn. ( )

Freda is blueberry picking with grandma. When they can no longer eat any more, they preserve the others in jars as jam for later. Freda gets the idea that she can preserve anything, and have it always and forever. But one day while eating her grandma’s jam, she realizes that something is missing. That something is grandma, because if you put something up to remember it, you don’t have a chance to make new memories with it. This story was lovely and even has a blueberry jam recipe at the end. ( )

On a beautiful summer day, Freda goes blueberry picking with her gran. Inspired by her gran's blueberry jam, Freda things of saving other things in jars: a fresh chocolate chip cookies, brand new crayons, poppies, unbroken robins' eggs, an unmelted rocket pop, her best friend Jack, who's moving soon ("and now he wouldn't"). "Finally, Freda's favorite things were tucked away in jars. Everything would be saved and safe, just the same, forever." But with everything "saved and safe" in jars, much of the color and fun is gone from the world. When Freda makes herself a snack, the taste of blueberry jam reminds her of all the good things she has saved, and she lets them all out (mostly).

Includes a recipe for blueberry jam.

See also: In A Jar by Deborah Marcero, Swatch by Julia Denos, The Most Magnificent Thing by Ashley Spires ( )