The Blueberry Machine

Jan von Holleben and Monte Packham

Welcome to the world of Jan von Holleben
Jan von Holleben has garnered a reputation throughout Europe as the “Dr. Seuss of photography” for his mind-bogglingly quirky illustrations that ignite the imaginations of young people and set them into action to make works of their own. His exhibition Dreams of Flying at the Victoria and Albert Museum of Childhood inspired hundreds of unsolicited responses from children who figured out his simple but magical photographic techniques and created their own contributions for the museum’s website. His editorial projects are iconic in Germany and his books have been translated into seventeen languages, but he is still unknown in the United States!

Now, The Blueberry Machine has come to the rescue to delight and inspire new readers. For parents and teachers taking a first step into the world of Jan von Holleben, the book will become an indispensable tool to draw kinesthetic learners, full-immersion doers, and fervent inventors into the wonders of the book, reading, and image making.

There are things to figure out here!
We meet young Olav, our master of invention, as he sets out from his tiny cottage into the vast landscape to gather blueberries for Sunday dessert. But as our narrator informs us, there is a more magnificent story to unfold. Quickly immersed in his imagination among the rocks, streams, and thickets of his family’s hillside farm, Olav fills his day (and the landscape) building wonder machines for both purpose and pleasure, while the narrator encourages the young reader to jump in with a detective’s eye for detail and a puzzle solver’s delight in a riddle to figure things out: How do they work? What do they do? How did Olav do that, and can I do that too? And what about the Blueberry Machine? What is it? Where is it? Who is it?

Monte Packham weaves his tale between, around, and through the wildly inventive illustrations of Jan von Holleben, which are themselves a riddle to be solved and an open invitation to the child to join in the fun and make something too. Nothing more is needed than the most ordinary objects and imagination to transform the reader’s own world into a place of wonder and invention.

Designed for emerging readers
The Blueberry Machine is designed to support new readers as they engage with the creativity and function of written language. The book is typeset in Andersen, a modern serif face designed by Thierry Fétiveau with emerging and dyslexic readers in mind. Like the riddles presented by the story and illustrations, the letterforms too will draw the attention and tiny fingers of a young reader with their dynamic visual rhythm and beautiful details. The typographic composition was worked out in several stages on press, allowing the designer and printer, Nina Holland, to evaluate and revise the size and spacing of the typographic elements on the real book paper. This method is essential for legibility but also ensures that the rhyming, rhythm, and word play of Monte Packham’s lively verse are fully expressed in the visual lines of the printed text.

Playing and learning together
The Blueberry Machine is a book to captivate a child over many years and to be handed down with fond memories to the next generation of readers. The book presents an opportunity for adults and children to engage with each other to figure out how Olav’s magical world came together and then to experiment with the techniques beyond the pages of the book. The Blueberry Machine is a reminder that less can be more and that the greatest gift for any child is time spent with their adults immersed in creative play and learning. Most children will take the lead and show their parents how to do it, but for parents and teachers in search of ideas and activities to extend the experience of the book, below you will find some playful learning activities for children at different developmental stages, including young artists, inventors, and writers who are already highly skilled. The activities include searching for objects, sorting into categories, rhyming and writing in verse, investigating mechanical functions, and making machines using Jan von Holleben’s techniques.

Read more under “Technical Details”.