Saint Valentine ANNOTATION
Recounts an incident in the life of St. Valentine, a physician who lived some 200 years after Christ, in which he treated a small child for blindness.
FROM THE PUBLISHER
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.
SYNOPSIS
How did Valentine's Day, one of our most popular holidays, begin? It started in ancient Rome, when a kind physician named Valentine took an interest in a young blind girl. With his healing skill and his deep faith he restored her sight. What we now call Valentine's Day began when he sent the little girl a secret message, which she received after the Christian martyr was executed. For this tale rich in sentiment, master illustrator Robert Sabuda has created exquisite paper mosaics to suggest early Christian art that resonates with both subtlety and power.
FROM THE CRITICS
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. (Oct.)
Publishers Weekly
"Stunning mosaics of marbleized and hand-painted paper depict this legend of Valentine," said PW in a starred review. Ages 4-7. (Jan.)
Children's Literature - Alexandria LaFaye
We hear about St. Valentine's Day all our lives, but few people know much about the man who the holiday is named for. This thoughtful and touching book tells the story of Valentine the man. He was a Roman physician who used herbal medicine to heal people and who defied the Roman government by worshipping a single god. This book tells the story of how he cured a child's blindness and sent her the first "valentine" before he was executed by the Romans for his religious beliefs. Based on facts and myths of his life, this book provides an interesting view of Valentine the man. The beautiful mosaic illustrations add to the historic feel of the book.
School Library Journal
Gr 1-3 -- Valentine was a physician and a Christian priest who often prayed on his patients' behalf. One day the emperor's jailer brought his blind daughter to Valentine asking for a cure. Although the treatments didn't give the child sight, a strong friendship was born and flourished until the Roman soldiers destroyed the physician's home and imprisoned him. Before his execution, he sent the child a note with a crocus enclosed, and she, " . . . for the first time watched its color dazzle like the rays of the afternoon sun.'' Sabuda ends with information about the beliefs surrounding the saint and the holiday. The fluid, straightforward retelling of the legend is accompanied by evocative, mosaiclike illustrations created from colored cut paper. Varying sizes of illustrations, careful page placement, and effective use of white space create the impression of the large-scale period mosiacs. A fine melding of text and art. --Maria B. Salvadore, District of Columbia Pub . Lib .
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