Berry Magic. Teri Sloat

>

      

      Berry Magic

       WRITTEN BY

      Teri Sloat and Betty Huffmon

       ILLUSTRATED BY

      Teri Sloat

      Contents

       Berry Magic

       Anana’s Akutaq

      Long ago,

      before your grandmother’s memory, before the salmonberries and raspberries, before the cranberries and blueberries, there were only little black crowberries on the tundra. They grew like dots on the tops of the hills.

       Every fall, the old women grumbled about the crowberries:

       “These berries are so dry.”

       “These berries have no taste.”

       “These berries are not even worth picking!”

       But they picked them anyway, for there had to be akutaq (uh-GOO-tuk), Eskimo ice cream, at the fall feast, and it had to be filled with berries.

       Anana (un-NAH-na) watched the old women. She liked the way their brightly trimmed qaspeqs (KUS-puks) decorated the tundra. And while she watched them, a plan grew in her mind.

       As soon as Anana was home, she took down the sewing bag her grandmother had given her. Inside she found everything she needed to make four little dolls dressed in fur parkas. She even found four tiny scraps of cloth colored red, blue, orange, and rose.

       S he made the first doll quickly, stuffing it with dry grass. After stitching pieces of squirrel skin together for its parka, she tied the piece of red cloth around its head for a pelatuuk (BLAH-dook).