This is usually my favorite time of summer: the Big Lake’s warmed up enough for some real swimming, the garden is big and green and the blueberries are ready for picking. For the last few years we’ve picked blueberries, but this year we haven’t picked any yet because it’s been cool and drizzly and the berries have been slow to ripen. Perfect weather for reading a new book instead, right?

Introducing Peter in Blueberry Land, one of our new favorites. Blogger, Writer, Mama, Gardener, Photographer Zane first turned us on to the enchanting books of Elsa Beskow last year with The Sun Egg. Beskow’s illustrations are beautiful and her stories are magical. I might just have to begin a new collection…

The book might have had me at one of the first scenes when Peter gets whisked off to Blueberry Land and the squirrels appear to carry the baskets for the children of Blueberry Land. Now that’s more like the kind of squirrel we need instead of the kind that eat all of our strawberries right when they’re almost ripe enough for human consumption. Or munch on our beautiful eggplant. I digress.

A little while later we’re introduced to Mrs. Cranberry and her little cranberry girls. This is one of Wren’s favorite images in the book. I particularly like their red shoes and rosy cheeks.

I won’t spoil the story for you; you’ll have to order it yourself. I actually picked up a lap-sized copy of it when Wren and I visited Punzel’s Scandinavian a couple weeks ago. I promise to write about it soon, but for now we’re off to read about Peter’s magical trip to Blueberry Land. Again.