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The Soldier's Friend: Walt Whitman's Extraordinary Service in the American Civil War
Author
Illustrator
E B Lewis
Publication Date
September 17, 2024
Genre / Grade Band
Non-fiction / 4th − 5th
Language
English
Content Tags
Scariness & Traumatic Experiences
Format
Picture Book
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Description
Walt Whitman is celebrated as an iconic American poet, but few know of the crucial and heroic role he played tending to the wounded and dying in Civil War hospitals. This nonfiction picture book highlights Whitman's compassion and teaches an important lesson about empathy, making this a perfect social-emotional learning title for young readers.
In December of 1862, Walt Whitman left Brooklyn, New York, for the war-torn South after seeing his brother's name on a list of wounded Union soldiers. What he found on the battlefields completely changed his life, as he came face to face with not only the wounded, but the dying. Whitman spent the next three years working part-time in Washington, DC, visiting and ministering to soldiers in the city's many military hospitals. Caring for the sick and dying was not easy, but Whitman was committed to his chosen service. He became known as "the soldiers' friend," and was bound--in his own way--to save and heal the America he wrote about and loved so deeply.
New York Times-bestselling author Gary Golio and Caldecott Honor artist E. B. Lewis bring Whitman's story and his passion for America to life, complete with quotes from Whitman's works, and extensive backmatter, which includes a bibliography and photographs.
Publication date
September 17, 2024
Genre
Non-fiction
Page Count
40
ISBN-13
9781635925876
Publisher
Calkins Creek Books
BISAC categories
JNF042000 - Juvenile Nonfiction | Poetry | General
JNF007000 - Juvenile Nonfiction | Biography & Autobiography | General
JNF025270 - Juvenile Nonfiction | History | United States - Civil War Period
JNF007000 - Juvenile Nonfiction | Biography & Autobiography | General
JNF025270 - Juvenile Nonfiction | History | United States - Civil War Period
Publishers Weekly
Starred Review
This moving picture book biography from Golio and Lewis explores the work that poet Walt Whitman (1819-1892) took on during the U.S. Civil War. In New York City, where he befriends ferry pilots and occasionally visits them in the hospital, he begins visiting wounded Union soldiers, as well. When his brother's misspelled name appears on a list of wounded soldiers, Whitman hurries south, finding his sibling in Virginia. The poet stays at the camp to talk to soldiers and write letters for those who cannot, and army doctors eventually put him in charge of wounded soldiers being sent to Washington, D.C. Graceful, light-filled watercolor spreads depict hazily chaotic battles, city scenes, and Whitman's face and faraway eyes as he wrestles with the pain he encounters. As one included quotation reads, "I do not see that I do much good to these wounded and dying... but I cannot leave them." Reproduced photographs and more about the figure conclude. Ages 7-10. (Sept.)
Copyright 2024 Publishers Weekly, LLC Used with permission.
Kirkus
Starred Review
In a time of strife in contemporary America, this emotive story centers empathy and kindness.
ALA/Booklist
Brief pull quotes from his poems and letters give the poet a personal voice, and his gray-bearded figure--at once approachable and charismatic--lights up Lewis' hospital scenes.
Gary Golio
A visual artist, musician, and psychotherapist, Gary Golio is the author of the New York Times-bestselling picture book Jimi: Sounds Like A Rainbow, which received the 2011 Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award. His other books, most of which profile important artists, include When Bob Met Woody, Strange Fruit, and most recently Sonny Rollins Plays the Bridge. Visit garygolio.com. The recipient of a Caldecott Honor and an Orbis Pictus Award, along with many others, E. B. Lewis is the illustrator of more than seventy books for children. His Calkins Creek titles include Seeking Freedom by Selene Castrovilla and Lizzie Demands a Seat by Beth Anderson, which won Bank Street College of Education's Flora Stieglitz Straus Award for excellence in fiction, along with many other honors. He is also illustrating the forthcoming book Invincible by Wade Hudson.