Susan B. Anthony
set out two saucers,
two cups, and two slices of cake.
Frederick Douglass
arrived for tea.
Debut author Dean Robbins's charming picture book Two Friends: Susan B. Anthony and Frederick Douglass depicts the true story of the historic friendship between two of America's greatest 19th-century civil rights pioneers, beginning with afternoon tea by candlelight. (Today, the author's note points out, there's a sculpture in Rochester, N.Y., of the two friends having tea.)
From this cozy scene in snowy Rochester, Robbins flashes back to the childhoods and early careers of Anthony and Douglass, emphasizing parallel experiences that might have contributed to their special friendship. For instance, "As a girl, Susan wanted to learn what boys learned./ But teachers wouldn't let her." And, "Frederick grew up as a slave in the South..../ He secretly learned to read and write. New ideas thrilled him." As adults, "They promised to help each other,/ so one day all people could have rights." Robbins maintains an optimistic tone, but avoids sugarcoating history by noting that while some people liked the activists' ideas on women's suffrage and abolition, "Others didn't."
Husband-and-wife team Sean Qualls and Selina Alko's warm gouache, acrylic and colored pencil, collage-inspired artwork inventively illustrates the power of ideas. Cursive script with phrases like Douglass's "Truth is of no color..." streams out of the friends' mouths and emerges from steaming cups of tea in sinuous rivers that flow across the handsome spreads. Two Friends is an artful, cleverly crafted homage to progressive civil rights leaders as well as an inspiring story of friendship. --Hank Stephenson, bookseller, Flyleaf Books