Saint Valentine - Hardcover

Sabuda, Robert

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 068931762X ISBN 13: 9780689317620

Publisher: Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 1992

Synopsis

In ancient Rome there lived a gentle and humble man named Valentine. He was a physician, but he was also a Christian priest whose life and freedom were in constant danger in a city of people who believed in so many gods, not just one. So Valentine tended to his patients in the daytime, but he prayed for them only at night.

One day a jailer from the emperor's prison appeared at Valentine's door with his small child, a girl who was blind. Knowing the difficulty of curing blindness, Valentine vowed to do his best, and over the weeks of treatment and prayer the three became fast friends. But even his friendship with the jailer could not save Valentine when the Roman soldier came to imprison him.

Here, accompanied by Robert Shabuda's dramatic mosaics evoking the time period in which the story takes place, is the story of a man whose goodness and faith brought about a miracle, and whose name lives on today in one of our most celebrated holidays.

About this title

About the Author:

ROBERT SHABUDA grew up in Pickney, Michigan, and is a graduate of Pratt Institute in New York City. He has illustrated several books for children, among which are Walden by Henry david Thoreau; and I Hear America Singing by Walt Whitman. Earth Verses and Water Rhymes by J. Patrick Lewis (1991) was Mr. Sabuda's first book with Atheneum. He currently lives in New York City with his companion, Dale Stine, and their cats, Tammy and Reba.

From Publishers Weekly:

Stunning mosaics crafted from marbleized and hand-painted paper depict this legend of Valentine, a humble Roman physician and "priest of the Christians" whose patients include a jailer's blind daughter. Recognizing the danger of praying to a single god (rather than to the numerous gods most Romans worship), Valentine prays for his patients only at night, but he is eventually imprisoned. Aware of his fate, he writes to the jailer's daughter, who receives her sight when a crocus drops into her hand from the scroll her father reads is "from your Valentine." The book's matter-of-fact narrative (some explanations are simplified for the intended audience) rightly points the reader's attention to Sabuda's intricately conceived mosaics. The marbleized paper creates subtle textures and shading, while vertical illustrations exude drama and compassion. Sabuda extends his mosaic motif onto the white space by constantly expanding and fragmenting it with full-page illustrations; tall, rectangular frames; patterned border strips and blocks of type. The resulting interplay of geometric shapes and color lends an especially appropriate classical appearance to this singular work. Ages 6-9.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Atheneum Books for Young Readers
• Publication date: 1992
• ISBN 10: 068931762X
• ISBN 13: 9780689317620
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 32
• Illustrator: Sabuda Robert