Pink and Say

Polacco, P. (1994). Pink and Say.  New York, NY: Philomel Books.

     
    Pink and Say, by Patricia Polacco, is a very moving and heartwarming story about two young men who form a friendship during the Civil War.  One of the main characters, Sheldon Curtis or Say, is a fifteen-year-old white Union soldier who is hurt while running away from his unit.  Another main character, Pinkus Aylee or Pink, is also a Union soldier around the same age as Say but he is black.  Pink finds Say injured and takes him home to his mother, Moe Moe Bay, where she nurses him back to health.  During this time Pink and Say learn about each other and become great friends. While there they must be on the look out for marauders, a group of bandits, who are going around killing Union soldiers.   In order to keep his mother safe and to fight his fight, Pink wants to leave with Say to return to their units, but Say does not want this.  Before they have the chance to leave, the marauders come to the house.  Moe Moe Bay makes Pink and Say hide in the root-cellar while she deals with the intruders.  The marauders rummage through the house taking items and leave, but not before shooting Moe Moe Bay and killing her.  Both boys are deeply hurt by this and decide to go finish the fight as soon as they bury Moe Moe Bay.  During their journey to find the units Pink and Say encounter a situation that will change their lives forever.  

    Patricia Polacco wrote and illustrated a beautiful story that is sure to make any reader feel a great deal of emotion.  The story is told in a shifting point of view.  In the beginning, the story is told by Polacco, she is setting up the story for the reader and explaining how the story will be told.  The story quickly shifts to another characters, Say, point of view to tell majority of the story.  At the end it shifts back to Polacco’s point of view to conclude the story and tell how she came to hear the story.  Polacco never states the time period but thanks to the illustrations and context clues we can determine the time.  Knowing that the characters are fighting in a war for the Union tells us that it is during the Civil War.  In the beginning of the story it states that Sheldon was somewhere in Georgia.  This is evident by the strong southern dialect of Pink and Moe Moe Bay.  An example of the dialect is when Moe Moe Bay is talking with Say, “You ain’t nothin’ of the kind. You a child…a child”.

 

    The illustrations are  stunning and help to extend and enrich the story for the reader.  Polacco drew the pictures to go along with the story and used acetone markers to color them in.  The pictures help to depict the emotions the characters are feeling throughout the story.  When Pink tries to explain to Moe Moe Bay that him and Say will be leaving to join the war again the illustrations convey how each of the characters feel at that moment.  Moe Moe Bay is against the idea has her eyes closed and her hand up as to tell Pink to stop talking.  Pink holds in hands up in a way that leads the reader to think he is saying “why not?”  Say is leaning against a table with his eyes closed and arms folded against his body, he did not want to fight again.  This is just one example of how the illustrations compliment the text and help the reader better understand how they characters feel. 

    This story, because of the content, would be appropriate for upper elementary students.  There are several ways this book could be used in the classroom.   During a discussion of the Civil War this story would be an excellent way to show how children not much older than the students were involved in the war.  When introducing the story the teacher would need to talk with students about some of the language used.  Because of the time period and southern dialect there are several words and phrases that students may have a difficult time with.  Some examples are mustered, smote, dysentery and jump the broom.  The BIG questions that I would ask are:

• How would you feel if it were against the law for you to know how to read?
• How did Say change after Moe Moe Bay was shot?
• Why do you think Pink thought the War was “his fight”?

    When I taught fifth grade there was a copy of this book in the class library that was left from the previous teacher.  At that time I never thought about reading this story and I did not know what it was about.  When I saw this title on the list I thought I would give it a try, and I am happy that I did because it is not what I expected.  I would recommend this book to any fourth, fifth or sixth grade teacher that is teaching about the Civil War era.  I think it a great way to introduce students to the War and it has the potential to create great class discussions.