Pink and Say

by Patricia Polacco. (Philomel, 1994 ISBN 0-399-22671-0. Order Info.) Picture Book. Grades 3+.
This review by Carol Otis Hurst first appeared in Teaching K-8 Magazine.

Review

This heart-wrenching historical picture book, based on a true story, presents us with two men from the Union army who meet after a battle of the Civil War. Say, the white younger man, has been wounded. Pink, a black man, carries him home to where his mother is surviving in ruins of a deserted plantation. Pink is determined to rejoin his unit in spite of mother's protest. Say, who was deserting when wounded, only agrees because of the danger they present to Pinks mother. Marauders come and kill her while they hide in the cellar. On the way to the front lines they are captured by confederates and taken to Andersonville prison, Pink is hung. Say survives to become author's great-great grandfather.

Related Areas of Carol Hurst's Children's Literature Site

• The Keeping Quilt by Patricia Polacco. Featured Book with activities, related books and links.
• Civil War and Children's Literature
• US History and Children's Literature

Related Areas on the Internet

• Patricia Polacco's Web Site:
  http://www.patriciapolacco.com
• Kay E. Vandergrift's site about Patricia Polacco:
  http://www.scils.rutgers.edu/special/kay/polacco.html
• http://sunsite.utk.edu/civil-war/ is the American Civil War Homepage with links to lots of information and photographs about the Civil War
• http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/cwphtml/tl1861.html Is an illustrated timeline of the events in the Civil War
• http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/cwphtml/cwphome.html archives over 1000 photographs of the war