

Robert is on my list and I would like to read all his books now. This is the 2nd book by Robert that I simply adore. It looks so ideal and what a wonderful childhood. They go clam digging on the shores of Maine and then go into town for a few groceries. This story rings true after recently seeing this. She gets a dollar for her teeth, not just a wish. She has to show off each wiggle, each tooth, and she loves the drama of the process. My niece has lost several teeth and each one has such excitement around it. She discovers a tooth is loose and the excitement is vibrating in the book. Sal, who I assume is the same Sal in the Sal and the Blueberries, wakes up excited to go to town. The drawings are black and white with exquisite details. I love the artwork and the nature drawings in this story. Twelve years later on June 30, 2003, McCloskey died at his home in Deer Isle, Maine. Three others of his picture books are set on the coast and concern the sea.

McCloskey's wife and eldest daughter Sally are reputed to be the models for little Sal and her mother in Blueberries for Sal (1948), a picture book set on a "Blueberry Hill" in the vicinity. They had two daughters, Sally and Jane, and settled in New York State, spending summers on Scott Island, a small island off Little Deer Isle in East Penobscot Bay. In 1940, he married Peggy Durand, daughter of the children's writer Ruth Sawyer. After Vesper George he moved to New York City for study at the National Academy of Design.

McCloskey was born in Hamilton, Ohio, during 1914 and reached Boston in 1932 with a scholarship to study at Vesper George Art School. He was also the writer for Make Way For Ducklings, as well as the illustrator for The Man Who Lost His Head. Four of those eight books were set in Maine: Blueberries for Sal, One Morning in Maine, Time of Wonder, and Burt Dow, Deep-water Man the last three all on the coast. He both wrote and illustrated eight picture books and won two Caldecott Medals from the American Library Association recognizing the year's best-illustrated picture book. John Robert McCloskey was an American writer and illustrator of children's books.
