Favorite Picture Book Blogfest

Megan Bickel @ The Write-At-Home-Mom is hosting today's Blogfest. Why?  Because picture books  deserve love too!

For the full list of blogfest participants, click HERE.

To choose only ONE picture book is an impossible task, not because I can't do it, but because I don't want to spotlight only one. 

In our blogging circle, we don't talk much about PBs or PB writing. AND. THEY. ARE. WONDERFUL. In fact, I do teacher in-service trainings about using PBs in ALL subject areas and at ALL grade levels. But in the spirit of the blogfest, I will share my mostest favoritest picture book of all.

Pink & Say

by Patricia Polacco

 

Oh, how I love this book.  But I cry every time I read it. Not just a tear or two, but full-out crying with tissues and nose-blowing. It is so full of courage and heart that it overwhelms me every time. And it's all true, every single word.

"I touched Mr. Lincoln's hand. It were near Washington. We were quartered there just before Bull Run. The president himself were shakin' everyone's hands. And I just put my hand right out."

"And he took it?" Pink asked.

"Yep, he took it," I answered. 

"Now there's a sign, ain't it?" he said, smilin' broadly.

"Touch my hand, Pink. Now you can say you touched the hand that shook the hand of Abraham Lincoln."

The illustrations are beautiful and heart-wrenching, like this one from later in the book when Pink & Say are being separated. *sniff, sniff*

"I watched tears fill his [Pink's] eyes and cleaved my hand to his until they wrenched us apart. They smote him and dragged him away from me."

Patricia's final words about Pink kill me every time. But you'll have to read it to find out what happens. *hint, hint*

The coolest part comes from Patricia's final words to the reader:

"I know this story to be true because Sheldon Russell Curtis [Say] told his daughter, Rosa.

Rosa Curtis Stowell told it to her daughter, Estella.

Estella Stowell Barber, in turn, told it to her son, William.

He then told me, his daughter, Patricia.

When my father finished this story he put out his hand and said, 'This is the hand, that has touched the hand, that has touched the hand, that shook the hand of Abraham Lincoln.'"

Here's the Goodreads blurb:

There are few picture books written about the Civil War, and none are as powerful as this one. This story, about how a young black soldier rescues a white soldier, opens young readers' eyes to the injustices of slavery and the senselessness of war. Highly charged emotionally, this masterful retelling of a true story, narrated through the white soldier's eyes, is made all the more powerful when it is revealed that the soldier was the author's great-great grandfather.

Patricia Polacco is my PB hero. She can cram more power and emotion and truth into a picture book than anyone out there. And she is a MASTER at voice. If you're looking for examples of writing with strong voice, head to the library and fill your basket with Patricia Polacco stories. Each is different, and each is spectacular. That is not hyperbole, folks, it's fact.

What is your mostest favoritest picture book?