Pink and Say

Pink and Say is about to boys who became good friends during the Civil War. Pink and Say were nicknames for Pinkus Alyee and Sheldon Curtis. They were both just teenage boys at the time. Sheldon was shot in the leg and had been lying on the ground for two days, dying. But then Pink finds him and brings him to his house for Pink's mother, Mo Mo Bay to nurse him back to health. Everyday Say would get a little better, until he was finally healed. That's when Pink decided that him and Say needed to go back to the war. 

When they decided to leave and were already the door they heard marauders coming. They rushed back inside the house and Mo Mo Bay hid them. They came in and took all of the food then killed Mo Mo Bay. After that they buried her body. Once they were done they realized they were being followed. Eventually they were taken to a Confederate camp, were Say survived, but they killed Pink. Say went on to live many more years and pass this story down.

Pink, Say and Mo Mo By were all really good people. Pink was a little tougher and was determined to fight for what he believed in. He knew how to read which Say didn't know how to do. Say fled during a battle, that is how he got shot. Say was affraid of the war and didn't want to go back, the opposite of Pink. Say touched the hand of Abraham Lincoln so he let Pink touch his hand, so Pin would be able to say he touched the hand that shook the hand of Abraham Lincoln. Mo Mo Bay loved the boys very much. She didn't want them to go back to the war because they were just boys. She also taught Say the meaning of bravery. 

This was a really sad book, but it was also a great story. She used some words that I didn't get because the book was written the way people talked back then. I did like how the different personalities were described. It really let you see what the characters were like. I also thought the illustrations were cool.

I did some visualizing during the story. I visualized the part when Say was on the ground with the bullet in his leg and the part when the marauders found them.

Patricia Polacco was related to Say. She has written many children's books. She went to ohio State University. She has a masters in the Fine Arts and a Ph.D in Art History.  Throughout her life she has lived in Michigan, Florida and Oakland, California. Oakland was a place where the   people were all different. Most of the people from this area contributed to her characters.