San San Souci, R. D. (1999). The faithful friend. New York: Aladdin Paperbacks.
The Faithful Friend is a Caldecott Honor Book and a Coretta Scott King Award winning book.
The tale of Clement and Hippolyte’s adventure offers romance, intrigue, courage and unimaginable friendship. The genre is a traditional folktale from the French West Indies. A traditional literature piece is of ancient storytelling that found its way to the written word. These stories are of cultural and spiritual truths and beliefs. However, factual elements exist making these tales a thoughtful insight into human nature. Folktale elements in this interesting read are wizardry, zombies, poisonous fruits, a fer de lance, and the like. Children find these elements fun to discuss as a during-reading activity!
The illustrations are exquisitely accomplished, by Brian Pinkney, via the “scratchboard” technique. This type of artwork begins with a black ink-covered canvas and the illustrator uses a technique that gives the impression that he has used a sharp tool to “scratch-in” color resulting in thin, straight, lines. An example of a composition work is on page 24-25 in the picture book, the wedding scene.
The wedding on page 25 serves as a focal point of the page(s). In contrast, composition in the form of disharmony is displayed on page 10 whereas the uncle is rising above the others in the artwork, displaying dominance.
The illustrations are exquisitely accomplished, by Brian Pinkney, via the “scratchboard” technique. This type of artwork begins with a black ink-covered canvas and the illustrator uses a technique that gives the impression that he has used a sharp tool to “scratch-in” color resulting in thin, straight, lines. An example of a composition work is on page 24-25 in the picture book, the wedding scene.
The wedding on page 25 serves as a focal point of the page(s). In contrast, composition in the form of disharmony is displayed on page 10 whereas the uncle is rising above the others in the artwork, displaying dominance.
The colors chosen for this story accurately depict the isle with vivid greens and pinks, bright yellows and orange in the island flowers. The sky is very realistic in color with hues of blue on one page and the light pinks at sunset. The ocean waters combine the blues and greens, looking very natural. The illustrations compliment the story setting, on the island of Martinique, brilliantly.
The story unfold as two boys, Clement (of dark skin) and Hippolyte (of fair skin), grew up together as life-long friends. As grown men, Clement falls in love with a beautiful woman in a picture. He wants to set out on a journey to find her and propose marriage. His friend, Hippolyte agrees to go along with him on his adventure. The young men find the woman, Pauline and Clement proposes marriage which angers her uncle, Monsieur Zabocat, who is a racist and is said to be a wizard. “I forbid any such thing. I have decided that we will travel to France,” he said. “There you will marry the man I choose for you.” He decides to stop the wedding at all cost. The uncle sets several traps to kill Clement and save Pauline. However, Hippolye begins to intervene on behalf of his dear friend and thwart the attempts on Clements life. How far will he go to help his friend?
Reflection: I have made decisions that have not always been popular, or supported by others, have you? Did you stand your ground and persevere? Did you have a support system to help you accomplish your goal, or decision?
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