The Blue and the Gray - Hardcover

Bunting, Eve

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0590601970 ISBN 13: 9780590601979

Publisher: Scholastic, 1996

Synopsis

A young white boy and his African-American friend explore the grassy fields near the construction area of their new homes, which is on the site of an 1862 Civil War battleground, and one boy's father reminds them of the war's lesson of freedom.

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Reviews

Grade 1-5-The families of two friends, one black and one white, are building new houses on a spot overlooking a field where a Civil War battle took place. The white boy's father describes the battle to the two children, and these imagined scenes are shown, juxtaposed with the everyday calm of the present. Surprised that there is no historical marker, the boys vow that they'll remember, and the father says: "We'll be a monument of sorts...a part of what they fought for long ago." Bunting uses a first-person narrative, writing in verse that is often evocative and lyrical. When the narrator finds an old bullet, he throws it "...high/across the field of bones./How silently it falls/into the tufts of grass/and flowers." The author does not always maintain an authentic child's voice, however. Bittinger's striking oil paintings are technically accomplished and suit the dramatic nature of the text. He's especially good with the contrast between the serene present, with its clear, transparent light, and the dark chaos of the fighting long ago. This well-intentioned story is not quite up to Bunting's best, but there is much potential for classroom use, and the book will make an interesting match with Patricia Polacco's Pink and Say (Philomel, 1994), right down to a painting of black hands and white hands reaching toward one another.
Lauralyn Persson, Wilmette Public Library, IL
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Luminous oil paintings carry the day for this thoughtfully conceived but unevenly executed story. Bunting's tale of two realities-houses under construction and the Civil War battlefield on which the new community lies-revolves around two boys, neighbors and friends, one black and one white. The action alternates between the present day and 1862 as one of the boys' fathers describes the long-ago battle, peeling back the layers of time to reveal the history that lies beneath the boys' feet. Bunting's (Smoky Night) verse shows glimmers of the lyricism of which she is capable ("The barrels of their muskets/ hard and black/ gave back/ the dazzle of the sun"), but it is marred by occasionally awkward phrasing ("The little puffs of smoke/ burst like gray dust/ around the barrel of each rifle gun,/ floated behind them as they'd run/ man after man"). The interracial theme seems a bit contrived, at times even self-congratulatory ("We'll be a monument of sorts," the father says, "a part of what they fought for/ long ago"). Meanwhile, Bittinger's (The Matzah That Papa Brought Home) artwork shines, capturing every nuance, whether picturing sweeping scenes of battle or the easy camaraderie between the two young friends. His evocation of the brutality and drama of war is all the more touching, standing out as it does in sharp relief against the sunny, tranquil contemporary scenes. Ages 5-7.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Bunting adds to her series of picture books with serious themes (Smoky Night, 1994, etc.) with this account of an unnamed Civil War battle framed within a present-day story of two young boys, one black, one white, whose new homes are being constructed within view of an unmarked battlefield. As the two boys, fast friends, explore their new homesites, they learn about the tragic loss of life that happened there in that war of ``us against us . . . the saddest kind of war there is.'' Bunting's text is mostly stated in the manner of a child's brief sentences, but sprinkled with rhyming words and typographically arranged like a poem in short lines that slow the reading to a somber pace. Bittinger's oils capture both the bucolic peace of the present-day countryside and the smoke and turmoil of battle, in one case as seen from exactly the same point of view in two consecutive spreads. Particularly effective is the ghostly presence of soldiers, cannon, horses, and wagons as faint silhouettes in some scenes of the two young friends. Offering only hints of the issues over which the war was fought, this is not a book to read without preparation, but it is a worthy complement to books such as Patricia Polacco's Pink and Say (1994) and Karen Ackerman's The Tin Heart (1990). (further reading) (Picture book. 7-10) -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Gr. 3^-5. On the cover two contemporary boys, one black, one white, stand, leaning against an old cart, their arms across each other's shoulders. The white boy is talking about the construction site where their new houses are being built. He's glad he and his friend J. J. will be neighbors there, with a wide view of a beautiful open field. But his father tells him that in 1862 that field was a Civil War battleground, and where the houses are going up, the grass was once soaked with blood. The boy's narrative is quiet, in simple free verse with an occasional rhyme. Bittinger's realistic oil paintings contrast the idyllic present--the two close friends, the narrator's father, the workmen building houses, the green spreading landscape--with the dark battle scenes, the clouds of fire and smoke, the wounded and the dead. The battleground isn't marked, but his father says their houses and their friendship are a sort of monument, "a part of what they fought for long ago." Kids will want to know more about the war, and they will also be stirred by the sense of history where they live, perhaps moved to find out what happened on their street 100 years ago. Hazel Rochman

Edition details

• Publisher: Scholastic
• Publication date: 1996
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0590601970
• ISBN 13: 9780590601979
• Binding: Hardcover
• Illustrator: Bittinger Ned
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 32