The Friend

Title: The Friend

Author: Sarah Stewart

Illistrator: David Small

Age Group: k-5

Summary: This story follows a little girl, Belle, and her housekeeper, Bea, on their everyday adventures. During the climax of the story Belle ends up getting taken out to sea by a big wave. Bea, sensing the danger, runs out to find Belle drowning in the water. Bea saves the littler girl, and the two continue on together. At the end of the story we see a grown up Belle reminiscing about her missed friend, Bea.

     This was a wonderful and emotional story. The pictures really compliment the text. It looks liek the pictures are drawn with water color. The story begins before the words even start on the end pages. You see a little girl sitting in a giant lavishly decorated room, all alone, with only her teddy bear on the ground. On the next two pages, even before the title page, we see the little girl wake up, put on her glasses, pick up her teddy, and venture down the stairs. The next two pages are the title pages where we see the dressed up parents rushing out of the house with luggage. There is real emotion on these pages because it looks as if the parents do not really care that they are leaving their little girl behind. We see a woman dressed as a maid putting the luggage into the trunk of the car. On the first page we are greeted by the text that is written in rhyming style. We are introduced to Anabelle Bernadette Clemntine Dodd and her friend Beatrice Smith. The beauty of this story is that the text never tells us that Bea is Belle's housekeeper and maid, however we can infer this from the pictures. We see Bea constantly watching over Belle in the illustrations. Throughout the text and the pictures we become instantly attached to these two characters, and the strong bond between them. The reader almost gets sucked in as if they actually know the characters. From the very beginning the story ends each little chapter with the two characters going hand in hand to the sea. This almost gives us a preminition as to what is going to happen in the story. Sure enough the sea becomes an even bigger character when Belle, trying to be independent, gets taken out by a wave. I love the way the story brings us into Bea's room. The text tells us that it is full of "birds and blooms" and before moving on to the next page I was a little confused as to what this meant. After turning the page you understand becuase you are given a visual picture of what Bea's room looks like. My favorite part of this story is the last page. I love the illistration of the girl, who we infer is Belle looking out the window thinking about her friend bea. When looking around the room that Belle is in, we see that she has all the things that she had when she was with Bea: sea shells, flowers, birds, and her teddy. There is almost an emotion sigh when the book ends becuase we feel the thanks that Belle feels for Bea. I also loved the fact that we are given an actual picture of who I'd like to think is the author Sarah Stewart and her real life Bea. The picture is disguised in an illistration of a locket.

      I would like to use this in a classroom to talk about the emotional weight that pictures and text can have. I'd like to disgus with my students why a piece of writing can make us feel a certain way and how pictures can help either compliment or change a mood.