Read and Learn

Learn your berries

This book is full of blueberries, strawberries, blackberries, raspberries, and— moon berries…? SO much fun can be had in this book full of berry-fun adventures! Let your preschooler identify some of their favorite berries and learn the differences among our many, delicious berries.

Friendship Lessons

Jamberry portrays such a great model of friendship! As we watch this boy and the bear on their berry-adventures, their friendship shines on the page.

Author's Note

The back page has a personal note from Bruce Degan, which I recommend you read out loud to your preschooler. Begin by telling them that it is a special note from the person who wrote the book. This sweet note might even motivate you to do some berry picking of your own! Author notes also help your preschooler to see that they can write books too! Book authors are simply telling their story. Use this opportunity to invite your preschooler to write a story of their own!

Why You Should Check it Out

Jamberry is a double-whammy. This book has great text and great pictures; it's sure to please your preschooler! Pick up a copy today, and they'll be singing a berry-tune in no time!

Helpful Tips for Parents

• Audiobooks count as reading. Children who listen to audiobooks develop the same comprehension, vocabulary, and story-structure understanding as children read to by adults.

• Let children choose books. Even if they always choose the same book, following their interest builds the reading habit more reliably than adult selection.

• Diverse books — featuring characters of different backgrounds, abilities, and family structures — build both empathy in all children and recognition/pride in children from those backgrounds.

• Connect books to life: visit the setting if possible, cook food from a story, create a craft related to the plot. The connection between books and real experience deepens both.

Frequently Asked Questions

My preschooler wants the same book read over and over. Should I allow this?

Absolutely — repeated reading of favorite books is both normal and highly beneficial. With each reading, children understand more: they catch details they missed, connect the story to new experiences, and increasingly delight in predicting what happens next. The request to re-read is a sign of deep engagement, not a cognitive limitation. Never replace a requested re-read with a book you've chosen — follow the child's reading lead. Boredom with a book you've read 30 times doesn't mean the child is bored.

When should I switch from picture books to chapter books?

Chapter books don't replace picture books — they extend the reading menu. Most children enjoy having a chapter book read aloud starting around age 4–5, even before they can read independently. Picture books remain appropriate through childhood (and adulthood — they're literature, not a developmental stage to be exited). When introducing chapter books: choose ones with short chapters, interesting characters, and immediate plot engagement. The Magic Tree House, Frog and Toad, and Flat Stanley series are reliable first chapter book series.

Related reading: See also our picture books for empathy and our nonfiction books guide for more ideas on this topic.

🎓 Skills Your Child Will Develop

• 🎭 Dramatic Expression — Hearing books read aloud with expression — character voices, varied pacing, dramatic pauses — models the prosody and emotional range of language that children internalize and bring to their own reading and speaking.
• 📖 Pre-Reading Foundations — Handling books, tracking print left to right, hearing stories, and connecting spoken words to written text directly builds the print awareness and phonological knowledge that formal reading instruction builds on.
• 👂 Listening Comprehension — Following a story — keeping track of characters, events, and cause-effect relationships — builds the listening comprehension that transfers directly to reading comprehension once children decode independently.
• 🌈 Imagination & Creativity — Entering a book's world — imagining the setting, characters, and events — exercises creative and narrative thinking that enriches pretend play, story creation, and the ability to generate original ideas.

Jamberry

Written by Bruce Degan

What Makes it a Favorite?

Rhythm

Jamberry is a wonderfully exciting preschool book. The pictures are lively and imaginative, and the words are so rhythmic, you'll be singing them long after you've put the book down.

Imagination

If you're ready to fly off into a berry land, you need to read this book! Filled with excellent imagination, Jamberry will take you dancing in meadows with strawberry ponies, and riding on berry-filled trains! You'll see elephants skating on raspberry jam and rockets of berries will go shooting by!

Illustrations

You know you have a master-artist at hand when the pictures tell the story just as well as the wonderful words. The illustrations come to life on the page, where there aren't any words at all. Instead, the reader is faced with a wonderful scene of the boy and the bear, in their Canoe-Berry, soaring down a waterfall.