Blueberries for Sal by Robert McCloskey, 1948.

Sal is a little girl whose mother takes her to pick blueberries one day. The mother wants to can the blueberries for winter.

Sal gives in to temptation and eats the blueberries as she picks them.

Meanwhile, a mother bear and her baby come to eat blueberries.

Both Sal and the Little Bear lose sight of their mothers, and when they go looking for them, Sal accidentally finds the mother bear, and the little bear accidentally finds Sal’s mother.

Eventually, the mother bear realizes that Sal is following her when she hears the blueberries plunking into Sal’s pail. Sal’s mother realizes that a small bear is following her when he eats blueberries out of her pail.

Fortunately, nothing bad happens. The mothers just look around for their respective children and figure out where they are by the sounds they make. Then, the mother bear leaves with her baby, and Sal and her mother take their blueberries home.

At first, I was worried about Sal being with the mother bear and how Sal’s mother would react to the mother bear when she saw it, but the two mothers never meet in the story, and the children are fine.

The book is a Caldecott Honor Book. It is available to borrow for free online through Internet Archive (multiple copies).