Title: The Faithful Friend

Author: Robert D. San Souci

Illustrator: Brian Pinkney

Publisher and Year: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Adults, 1995

Number of Pages: 36

Genre: Fable, Folktale

Analysis: The Faithful Friend is a book about two friends, Clement and Hippolyte, who take a journey to find a young girl named Pauline for Clement. Once arriving things take a turn for the worse and Hippolyte must keep trying to not let the zombie’s spells harm Clement and Pauline. In the end Hippolyte sacrifices himself so Clement and Pauline can live happily ever after.

This book can function as a mirror or a window for two friends. Friends who truly care for one another, grow close like siblings, similar to Clement and Hippolyte. The actions portrayed by Hippolyte were sacrificial. This book could function as either a mirror or a window because for the mirror, two friends would be sacrificing for the other friend in this exact moment, but this book could be a window for friends who could see themselves sacrificing for the better of the other friend in the future.

Perceptually, the book cover has two silver honor awards, a Caldecott Honor and Coretta Scott King Award, which stick out immediately. However, the colors on the cover are dark creating a bad feeling. The size and color of the text make it easy to read and flow from page to page.

Structurally, the two boys are on the same level because of their similar status or power. However, Monsieur Zabocat, the plantation owner of Pauline, appears higher than Hippolyte, Clement and Pauline throughout the book. Since Zabocat is shown higher than the three friends, this shows that he has more power and status than the others. A horizon typically appears throughout the book, but the horizon disappears when Hippolyte is about to prevent the zombie’s spell from harming Clement and Pauline, which shows that danger is near. The text adds to the images because of the complexity of the message within. The words could cause some confusion if there was an absence of images. Both the images and the text work together to complete the message and story.

Ideologically, sacrificial friendship is the main lesson to take away from the book. The author does a great job of showing the sacrifices that were made by one friend. However, some of the actions prior to the sacrifices like zombies, threats from Pauline’s owner, and spells are all actions and behaviors that children should not read about. The spells and zombies could easily scare young children. So, yes the lesson about friendship is important, but that lesson does not reveal itself until after the inappropriate action by some of the characters in the book. The concept as a whole is great, but some of the minor details are worrisome for children.