34 pages • 1 hour read
Doris Buchanan SmithA Taste of Blackberries
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 1973A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
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Authorial Context: Doris Buchanan Smith
Doris Buchanan Smith (1934-2002) was an American author who revolutionized children’s fiction with her book A Taste of Blackberries. She was one of several authors who aimed for a more realistic approach in their writing. Her contemporaries were equally influential authors such as Judy Blume (who wrote the 1970 book Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret, which tackles sexual and religious topics) and Katheryn Paterson (who wrote Bridge to Terebithia in 1977 as a response to her son’s eight-year-old friend’s death). Smith’s book was rejected by several publishers who worried that children were too young to read anything about death. The book was eventually published and became a success, establishing a place in the children’s literary canon.
Smith was born in Washington, DC, and then moved to Atlanta, Georgia, at age nine. Miss Pruitt (her sixth-grade teacher, to whom A Taste of Blackberries is dedicated) was the first to notice Smith’s talents as a writer. Smith later studied for a few years at South Georgia College but dropped out with her first husband before completing her degree. The couple raised four biological children and fostered dozens of children over the years.
She returned to writing as soon as her youngest child was old enough to attend school. A Taste of Blackberries (1973) was her second novel (the first was never published) and became a classic in children’s literature. Other notable works of Smith’s include Last Was Lloyd (1980), named School Library Journal’s Best Book of the Year; Return to Bitter Creek (1986), which won the Parents Choice Award; and Voyages (1980), The First Hard Time (1983), and The Pennywhistle Tree (1991), all of which were named Notable Children’s Books by the American Library Association. Her final published work was Remember the Red Shouldered Hawk (1994).
In 1990, Smith married her second husband, Dr. William J. Curtis, whom she met at a writer’s conference in Hawaii. They were married until his death in 1997. Smith passed away in 2002 after a battle with cancer. Her legacy lives on in A Taste of Blackberries, which is still in print and read by many to this day.
Literary Context: Death in Children’s Fiction
In 1973, A Taste of Blackberries broke the taboo on a subject that children’s fiction rarely touched on: death. Publishers initially rejected Doris Buchanan Smith’s novel about a boy losing his best friend, deeming the subject too dark for young readers. Until this point, the only widely received children’s book that tackled mortality was E. B. White’s Charlotte’s Web (the two books were later held in similar critical acclaim). Charlotte’s Web was more accepted because the idea of death is transferred to animals and insects instead of a human, whereas A Taste of Blackberries features not just a human death but that of a child.
Once the book was published, however, it proved a hit with its intended audience. The book is written from a child’s point of view, and Smith approaches the dark themes with great sensitivity. Instead of sheltering children from a very real part of life, A Taste of Blackberries gently introduces the topic in a way that is relatable and realistic. The stages of grief, the different ways adults and children process death, and the impact on a community after a death are all themes that this book explores. A Taste of Blackberries won numerous awards and continues to receive praise for its lasting impact on the children’s literary genre.
