Black Sage Books · Book One

Berry, The Insecure Bear

Berry believes the one rule his father ever gave him so completely that he stops seeing what every other animal in the forest can plainly see. When the forest needs him anyway, he finds out which parts of the rule were ever true.

A picture book by Wes & Darlene Kriesel.

“Only I catch fish for this family. You pick berries.”
The rule Berry never questions — until he has to

The Story

A rule he never questioned

Every day, Berry walks the same path to the same brook — and stops. His father's rule is simple: Berry picks berries. Only his father catches fish. So Berry believes what he's told, even as the other animals in the forest seem to see something different every time they look at him.

Then an angry bull tears through the community garden, and every creature turns to Berry for a kind of protection he's sure he doesn't have in him. What Berry finds at the water's edge — about the rule, and about himself — is the rest of the story.

A picture book about the stories we're told about who we are, and the harder, better work of finding out which ones are actually true.

Where Berry Is Now

The story is finished. Now it's finding a home.

Wes and Darlene finished Berry's manuscript in September 2026, and they're sending him out into the world — to the editors and publishers who might give him a home on shelves. There's no cover yet. There's no publication date yet. This page will grow as Berry's story does.

Manuscript finished
September 2026
Finding a home
In submission now
On shelves
Not yet scheduled

The Authors

Wes & Darlene Kriesel

Wes and Darlene have spent their careers around kids who are still deciding who they're allowed to become — Wes in the classroom and in education leadership, Darlene supervising the student teachers who'll carry that work forward. Berry is the story they wish someone had told them younger.

What's Next

Berry is Book One.

Book One · In Submission

Berry, The Insecure Bear

A rule, a rescue, and the bear underneath it
Book Two

In the sketchbook

Another Black Sage story is taking shape. More soon.