Berry Song

PreS-Gr 1–Goade, who was awarded the 2021 Caldecott Medal for We Are Water Protectors, received a 2023 Caldecott Honor for Berry Song—the audio follows almost a year later, synergistically narrated by Tripp who shares Goade’s native Alaskan Tlingit heritage. Tripp opens with a rhythmic bilingual Tlingit/English recitation of various berries, followed by Goade’s “Note to the Forager,” offering sage advice to avoid toxic look-alikes. “On an island at the edge of a wide, wild sea, Grandma shows me how to live on the land,” Tripp softly speaks over a soothing string-and-keyboard soundtrack. She maintains a tender tone, creating a blanketing welcome into a symbiotic world: “We take care of the land/ As the land takes care of us.” Just as Goade is “spellbound by the magic and joy of berry song,” so, too, will audiences be enthralled.