Jam and Jelly by Holly and Nellie by Gloria Whelan

This was an absolutely beautiful book--it looked like something you would see hanging on the walls of an art museum. The paintings are acrylic and so lifelike. Gijsbert van Frankenhuyzen works hard to create warm depictions of the family and their surroundings in these impressionistic paintings.

The family of three has a very humble lifestyle--finding many necessaries in the woods surrounding their small cottage. When the school year starts, money is needed to buy Holly a winter coat but there is none. Mama is adamant about Holly attending school and comes up with a plan to make some money. She says, "Plenty (of money) in the woods free for the taking."

Holly and her mama spend the summer collecting berries together, bathing in the sun. Green is a huge color element in all of the pages, creating a lush forest of foliage and berries. The pictures are so realistic, the reader can almost smell the strawberries and feel the blackberries. Holly and her mama work together to make the berries into jelly and sell them in a road stand. This is a charming story of a young girl and her mother spending time together. There is no amount of money that could take those memories away from them.

School starts and Holly is shown standing in her coat surrounded by snow--the only couple paintings not part of the green forest paradise. Especially in these hard economic times, it is interesting to see how hard work can pay off. I think students would love the pictures and enjoy the story. Not everyone can afford to drop $100 on a new coat at the mall, a fact which many of our students understand all too well.