In celebration of the Thoreau bicentennial (1817-2017)

Henry and the Huckleberries:
A visit with Mr. Thoreau at Walden Pond

Welcome to the website for the children’s book Henry and the Huckleberries: A Visit with Mr. Thoreau at Walden Pond.

This website provides a wealth of background and historical information about the people, the places, and the flora and fauna mentioned in the book. It is intended to help teachers, librarians, parents, and older siblings enrich their own knowledge and engage younger readers with the book.

In the story, the great naturalist, Henry David Thoreau, takes his young friends, including Edward Emerson (the son of Ralph Waldo Emerson) and Louisa May Alcott, berry picking near Walden Pond and turns a mishap into a gentle lesson about nature.

Based on a true story, this delightful work of “reality fiction” uses a technique inspired by Louisa May Alcott. Thoreau taught Alcott a great deal about the natural world and about the rich world of the imagination. Sally Sanford has deftly woven these strands into the book, and award-winning illustrator Ilse Plume’s images capture the enduring beauty and tranquility of Walden Pond and its neighboring woods.

“Henry and the Huckleberries beautifully conveys Henry David Thoreau’s love of nature and his tenderness toward children. Louisa May Alcott adored Henry, went on many of his huckleberry parties, and later wrote of their excursions, often weaving him into her fiction. Louisa would have loved this charming book, based on an actual huckleberry party with her young friend, Edward Emerson. Alcott fans are in for a treat!”
~ Jan Turnquist, Executive Director of Louisa May Alcott's Orchard House, Home of Little Women

“...a compelling story true to Thoreau’s character and his kind and empathetic understanding of children...a welcome and needed addition to the Bicentennial of Thoreau’s birth.”
~ Jeffrey S. Cramer, Curator of Collections, The Walden Woods Project/The Thoreau Institute at Walden Woods