Jack and the Sour-Berry Bush
Written by Terry Crosby
Illustrated by Emma Crosby
Jack the Bear was hungry. He was looking for food. His favorite food in the whole world was cookies, but he didn’t see any cookie trees anywhere.
He looked through the whole forest but he only got hungrier and hungrier. Finally, he saw a bush with berries on it. They looked delicious so he tried a mouthful.
The berries were SO SOUR!! It made Jack’s face pucker up! His eyes watered and he spit them out as soon as possible. Jack was upset. The berries looked good but they were awful…and he was still hungry!
Jack kept wandering through the forest. He still couldn’t find any cookies. He saw many different berries but he wouldn’t eat those ever again!
Sitting on top of a bush with blue berries on it were his two friends, Emma and Kathleen, the crows. They were eating the berries!!!
Jack the Bear screamed, “NOOOOO!!! Don’t eat those! They’re sour!!!”
“No, they’re not,” said Emma, with blueberry juice dripping off her beak. “They’re delicious!” added Kathleen.
Jack was confused. He ate some berries but they were sour. Emma explained, “Jack, you must have eaten berries from a sour-berry bush. Those taste horrible!”
“Yeah, Jack,” said Kathleen, “but not ALL berries are sour! Most are delicious! Like these blueberries!”
Jack finally understood but he was still a little nervous when he tried some blueberries.
“Hey! These are delicious!” said Jack.
Jack, Emma and Kathleen ate so many blueberries, they had to take a nap in the shade of the blueberry bush.