Berry Itchy Day / Herring Eggs or Bust
From Molly of Denali · 2019
Summary
Molly and her family head out to their secret berry-picking spot, but a swarm of mosquitoes cuts the trip short — sending Molly digging through books and asking experts for ways to outsmart the bugs. Then, Molly's cousin Randall calls from Sitka, far across Alaska, thrilled to be harvesting herring eggs — a seasonal tradition that works completely differently on the coast than berry-picking does inland.
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Teaching resources
Discussion questions
Discussion
Alaska is huge — and what families harvest from the land and water changes depending on where they live.
- Why did Molly's berry-picking trip get cut short? What did she do about it?
- What is Randall doing in Sitka? How is herring-egg harvesting different from picking berries?
- Why do you think both berries and herring eggs matter to the families who gather them?
- What is one food your family gathers, grows, or harvests together?
Quick work-a-long
Vocabulary: harvest, tradition, seasonal, coastal, inland.
Try it: Draw two columns labeled "Inland" and "Coastal." Sort berries and herring eggs into the right column, then add one more food you think belongs in each.