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I Read “Blueberries for Sal” to My Son Every Night Because I Find the Mother Attractive

Maybe I shouldn’t be admitting this.

I can only wonder what might have been had I read the book as a child myself. (Image from Unsplash)

When our son was born, my wife and I obtained all sorts of books, most of them gifts from friends and relatives who didn’t know that you can give gifts that aren’t books. Books about red fish and blue fish, hungry caterpillars, cows that type. And so many books about ducks. The one about the ducklings crossing a highway in Boston is a charming exemplar of the bountiful waterfowl genre.

The guy who wrote and illustrated that one wrote and illustrated another beloved New England-set classic, which — believe it or not — I’d never read before my wife retrieved her own childhood copy from her childhood home. I almost wish she hadn’t. Blueberries for Sal immediately stirred something inside of me that would probably have been better left unstirred. I can only wonder what might have been had I read the book as a child myself. As it is, I now read it to my own son almost every night. Not because he’s especially fond of it, but because I’m attracted to the mother in the book, and, honestly, I’m not sure how I feel about that. Maybe I shouldn’t be admitting it. It was strange enough just admitting it to myself.