Review by Booklist Review
Ages 5-9. Hands and gestures have always been important in Polacco's work. Here they are at the center of a picture book based on a true incident in the author's own family history. It's a story of interracial friendship during the Civil War between two 15-year-old Union soldiers. Say, who is white and poor, tells how he is rescued by Pinkus (Pink), who carries the wounded Say back to the Georgia home where Pink's black family were slaves. In a kind of idyllic interlude, Pink and his mother nurse Say back to health, and Pink teaches his friend to read; but before they can leave, marauders kill Pink's mother and drag the boys to Andersonville prison. Pink is hanged, but Say survives to tell the story and pass it on across generations. The figure of Pink's mother borders on the sentimental, but the boys' relationship is beautifully drawn. Throughout the story there are heartbreaking images of people torn from a loving embrace. Pictures on the title and copyright pages show the parallel partings as each boy leaves his family to go to war. At the end, when the friends are wrenched apart in prison, the widening space between their outstretched hands expresses all the sorrow of the war. Then, in a powerful double-page spread, they are able to clasp hands for a moment, and their union is like a rope. Say once shook Lincoln's hand, just as Say held Pink's hand, and Say tells his children, who tell theirs, that they have touched the hand that touched the hand . . . ~--Hazel Rochman
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by School Library Journal Review
K-Gr 5Pink and Say is Patricia Polacco's history-rich, emotion-laden story (Putnam, 1994) about the friendship between two boys who meet while fighting for the Union in the Civil War. In this StoryLesson Video version, the book is presented in an unabridged adaptation, in combination with an original musical score, a scene-setting introduction by Polacco, and ending with a short optional vocabulary lesson. Pinky, a black boy, finds Say, a wounded white boy, and brings him home. Pink's mother nurses Say, and just as the boys prepare to return to war, marauders come to the cabin, killing Pink's mother. The boys are captured several days later by Confederate troops. Say (Polacco's great-grandfather) survivesPink does not. What makes this video extraordinarily powerful is that Polacco narrater her own work, and the scenes cut seamlessly between her lavish illustrations and her Civil War-era home in Union City, MI where the video was filmed. These are bonuses to an already wonderful story, and show how author/illustrator Polacco melds her life into her craft. More than just a book-to-video adaptation, Pink and Say introduces viewers to the author, to storytelling in its finest face-to-face tradition, and to an accounting useful as a literature link to the Civil War, slavery, or Black History Month. School and public libraries would find this a worthy addition to their collections.-Marilyn Hersh, Hillside Elementary School, Farmington Hills, MI (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Horn Book Review
The text relates a moving episode in the lives of two young Union soldiers whose Civil War experiences are vastly different because of their races. African-American Pinkus saves Sheldon's life but is hanged at Andersonville soon after arriving there as a Confederate prisoner. The story has been passed down through generations of Polacco's family, starting with ancestor Sheldon Curtis. A multifaceted book that raises questions about courage, war, family, and slavery. From HORN BOOK 1994, (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
A white youth from Ohio, Sheldon Russell Curtis (Say), and a black youth from Georgia, Pinkus Aylee (Pink), meet as young soldiers with the Union army. Pink finds Say wounded in the leg after a battle and brings him home with him. Pink's mother, Moe Moe Bay, cares for the boys while Say recuperates, feeding and comforting them and banishing the war for a time. Whereas Pink is eager to go back and fight against ``the sickness'' that is slavery, Say is afraid to return to his unit. But when he sees Moe Moe Bay die at the hands of marauders, he understands the need to return. Pink and Say are captured by Confederate soldiers and brought to the notorious Andersonville prison camp. Say is released months later, ill and undernourished, but Pink is never released, and Polacco reports that he was hanged that very first day because he was black. Polacco (Babushka Baba Yaga, 1993, etc; My Rotten Redheaded Older Brother, above) tells this story, which was passed down for generations in her family (Say was her great-great-grandfather), carefully and without melodrama so that it speaks for itself. The stunning illustrations--reminiscent of the German expressionist Egon Shiele in their use of color and form--are completely heartbreaking. A spectacular achievement. (Nonfiction/Picture book. 4- 8)
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
