PATRICIA POLACCO and HER BOOKS
A lot can be learned about Patricia Polacco just by
reading her books, since most of them are inspired by incidents and people in her life.
She was born in Michigan in 1944, and lived in various towns in Michigan until here
grandmother, with whom she and her mother had been living, died. (Patricia's parents had
divorced when she was three.) She recalls that living on a farm with her Babushka
(grandmother) in Union City was a magic time, and that her Babushka and her other
grandparents were some of the people who inspired her most in life. We share some of
Patricia's life on the farm in the books Meteor! and Thunder Cake.
After her parents' divorce, her parents each moved
back in with their parents. During the school year, Patricia lived with her mother. She
spent her summers with her father. This arrangement kept her in constant touch with her
grandparents as a young child, and her work show the influence of these inter-generational
relationships. Many of her books, if not almost all, show a special relationship between
an elderly person and a child. You will see this in Chicken Sunday, Babushka's
Doll, Thunder Cake, Mrs. Katz and Tush, Aunt Chip and the Great
Triple Creek Dam Affair, and The Bee Tree.
In 1949, after her Babushka's death, Patricia, her
mother, and her brother Richard, moved to Coral Gables, Florida and stayed there for
almost three years before moving to Oakland, California. It was here, while living on
Ocean View Drive, that Patricia began to interact with people from many different racial
and ethnic backgrounds. Her neighbors, Stewart and Winston Washington, and their gramma,
Eula Mae Walker, treated her like a relative. She sometimes attended the Baptist church
with them, even though she was Jewish. She would then share a meal with Eula and her
family after church, usually fried chicken, and this became part of the book Chicken
Sunday.
Patricia mentions that she was a poor student in
elementary school and had a tough time with reading and math. She didn't learn to read
until she was almost 14. It was then that she discovered she had a learning disability
called dyslexia. Until then she had feared she was just dumb, and the teasing she got from
others just reinforced that fear. But a teacher discovered what was wrong, and after she
learned to read, Patricia caught up with the other students academically and was even able
to go on to the University with a Fine Arts major and to actually finish up with a Ph.D in
Art History. Between the time she finished her studies and started writing books, she
worked at restoring art pieces for museums, and then spent some years raising her
two children, Steven and Traci.
At the age of 41, Patricia Polacco began to write her
children's books. She says she was raised hearing stories -- not seeing them. Between her
mother people from Russia and the Ukraine, her father's people from Ireland, and Eula
Mae's family, she heard the stories of many different cultures. And she soon began to tell
stories herself. Since she had always been good at art, it was natural to illustrate the
stories she started writing down. She has enjoyed her career as an author and artist and
says the imagination which helped her think up her stories was helped to grow by the
stories she heard growing up and also by the fact that her family did not have a
television. She believes the television voices and pictures overpower one's desire
to create one's own pictures and develop one's own stories. When Ms. Polacco talks
to children and aspiring writers, she encourages them to turn off the TV and develop the
creativity they have within.
Barbara Radisavljevic © 2002
Studying the Books
 Teaching
with Favorite Patricia Polacco Books: Creative, Skill-Building Activities for
Exploring the Themes in These Popular Books by Immacula A Rhodes. This
book includes a profile of the author, before and after reading discussion
ideas, and lots of hands-on activities and reproducible worksheets to build
skills in reading, writing, math, art, and more. This guide covers six books
based on Polacco's family and personal experiences and six that are fiction,
fantasy, or folktales. Correlations to Langage Arts Standards are included. 64
pages. For grades 1-3. BTH-3280. $10.59-D
Thank You Mr. Falker (5 scripts): This script is based on Patricia
Polacco's autobiographical story about the teacher who recognized that her
inability to read after several years of school was due to dyslexia, and he
helped and encouraged her to overcome her reading disability. BTH-4565. $9.89-D
The Books
 Aunt
Chip and the Great Triple Creek Dam Affair: Hardcover picture book.
Unpaginated. In Triple Creek, TVs were so popular that almost everyone in the town had
forgotten how to read. People loved their TVs more than anything and watched them all the
time. That is, everyone but Eli's Aunt Charlotte. He called her Aunt Chip, and she was the
only person in town who did not have a television and had never owned one. She had been
the town librarian until no one used the library anymore, and after a while even forgot
what it was for. Finally the city fathers had it torn down and replaced with a giant TV
tower. And Aunt Chip took to her bed and vowed to stay there.
Eli loved his Aunt Chip and visited her often. She told
wonderful stories, and when he asked where she got them, she said from books. That puzzled
Eli. It was then that Aunt Chip discovered that not only Eli, but the whole town, could
not read. They used books as building materials for fences, walls, doorstops, plates, and
even to shore up the dam. For almost anything but reading. Aunt Chip shows Eli the inside
of a book and explains about writing:
'Now look
at this. Those are words. They tell about ideas, dreams,and feelings. They take you to
places far from here. They show you how to be fair and just, and
sometimes show your what happens when you're not. Books are a
treasure. All you need is the key.'
'The key?' Eli asked.
'The key! Knowin' these words and their
meanings,' she answered softly. 'It's called readin.'
Eli begs Aunt Chip to teach him to read, and she does.
Soon his classmates discovered that he could "hear" things that they couldn't.
He explained that he wasn't "hearing," but reading. They wanted him to read
more. And he took them to Aunt Chip, who taught them to read, too. Soon there weren't
enough books to go around, so the children started retrieving them from the places they
had been stashed. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending upon your point of view) one
book was pulled from the wall of books holding up the dam. I'll leave the rest to your
imagination, but by the end the children have taught their parents how to read again and
Aunt Chip lived to preside over the new town library. Cat #BTH-3169. $16.19-D. Click
on image of cover art to enlarge.
 Babushka's
Doll: Natasha wasn't really naughty. She just had no
patience when it came to waiting for things. She was always nagging her Babushka
(grandmother) to stop what her own activities to cater to Natasha's desires. When
Babushka finally finishes her chores and gets lunch on the table, Natasha notices a doll
on the shelf she had never seen there before. She asks, "Is that your doll,
Babushka?"
Her Babushka replies that it had been her doll when she
was a little girl, but she had only played with her once. Just once. When Natasha asks to
hold the doll, Babushka says Natasha may play with the doll while she goes to the store to
buy groceries. But as soon as Babushka left, the little doll comes to life and begins to
make demands: She wants to play.She wants Natasha to push her in the swing until Natasha
is tired. And some more. Natasha takes the doll for a ride in the goat cart and the doll
tells her to keep going and not to slow down. When Natasha is too tired to keep pulling
and sits down to rest, the doll insists she want to eat now. So Natasha struggles to fix
lunch. The doll spills the tea, throws the food around, and then demands that Natasha wash
and iron her dress -- now. Natasha tries her best, and the doll complains she didn't do it
right. At this point Natasha bursts into tears and says: "I'm just a little girl...I
wish you were just a doll."
At this point, Babushka returns to find Natasha in
tears and hears her story. Babushka says she must have just had a bad dream and puts the
doll back on the shelf. And after that, we are left with the impression that Natasha did
not nag her Babushka quite so much. Paper. Cat #BTH-2404. $6.26-D
 The Bee Tree: When Mary
Ellen (who happens to be Patricia Polacco's mother) gets tired of reading and wants to run
and play outside, her Grandpa decides it's just the right time for the two of them to go
find a bee tree. Grandpa traps some bees in a glass jar, and let a bee out. They chased it
to see where it went. AS they ran after the bee, one by one people they meet start
following the bee with them. Everyone considers finding the bee tree a great adventure.
And so it is. They find the tree, build a fire to make smoke so grandpa can gets some of
the sweet honeycomb, and then everyone enjoys biscuits and honey with tea. But Grandpa
draws Mary Ellen away from the crowd and back into the house. He puts a spoon full of
honey on one of the books and asks her to taste it. As she savors the sweetness of it, her
grandfather tells her: "There is such sweetness inside of that book too!....Such
things...adventure, knowledge, and wisdom. Just like we ran after the bees to find their
tree, so you must chase these things through the pages of a book!" And after that,
Mary Ellen found her books as exciting as the chase to find the bee tree. Paper.
Cat. #BTH1110. $6.29-D
Click on image to enlarge it.
Casey at
the Bat, by Ernest Lawrence Thayer, illustrated by Patricia Polacco.
Cat. # Put-115570. $5.39-D
 Chicken Sunday: Patricia and her neighbor friends
Winston and Stewart, are hoping to get the boy's gramma, Miss Eula, a beautiful Easter
bonnet they have seen in Mr. Kodinski's store window. They counted the money they had
saved and headed toward Mr. Kodinski's store, but just before they arrived, some bigger
boys were pelting the back door of the shop with eggs and yelling. They ran away just
before Patricia and her friends arrived, and they got blamed for it. They knew they'd have
a tough time getting the hat for Miss Eula now. But Patricia's mother helps the children
solve their problem and win Mr. Kodinski over with some very special Easter eggs. And Miss
Eula got her hat. And it was a very special Easter for all.
Cat. #BTH-3170. $6.29-D. Click on image to enlarge it.
 G is for Goat, Penguin Puffin,
2006. This goat-related alphabet book. Examples of what you might expect in a
two-page rhyme: "E is for Ears, some floppy, some not. F is for Flowers, which
goats eat a lot." The book ends with the vet being called, a long wait, and
finally three new kids (goat babies). BTH-3172. $6.29
 I Can Hear the Sun: A Modern Myth:
An eerie tale of a sad and lonely orphan boy named Fondo and his relationship with
Stephanie Michele, who cares for the geese on the shore of Lake Merritt, in Oakland,
California, where many homeless people congregate. As Fondo helps Stephanie Michele day by
day, he learns the routine of the park better than all the other workers, and he becomes
especially fond of a little blind goose, who begins to follow him everywhere. When people
notice the geese following him around, they tease that he will turn into a goose. "I
wish I could," Fondo answered softly.
I'd give the story away if I told you the end. Or where
the title comes from. And then you might not read this beautiful book about the woman who
has learned the secret ways of animals and hurting souls and who "listens to the
sun." And you must not miss reading it. Cat. #BTH-3171. $5.39-D
To see details, click on image to enlarge it.
 Just
Plain Fancy: Amish Naomi looks after her family's chickens with the help
of her little sister, Ruth. One day the girls find an abandoned egg in the tall grass near
the road. This egg seems almost fancy. Naomi takes it home to hatch, and when it does,
it's no ordinary chick. As it grows and becomes more beautiful (for it's a peacock) Naomi
is afraid it (and she) will be shunned for being too fancy. Then when all the elders were
present for a frolic, the peacock spreads its tail and Naomi is sure her fears will be
realized. When she expresses them, she is reassured that God made the peacock fancy, and
it was O.K. BTH-2637.$6.29-D, paper.
 Meteor!
Another book inspired by one of Polacco's childhood memories. She
remembers all the commotion that occurred when a meteor fell right on her grandma and
grandpa's farm one summer in in Michigan when she and her brother were visiting them. Word
spread all over the town of Union City and folks came from all around to see the meteor.
Even a medicine wagon, a circus, and the high school band turned out, and people almost
made a fair of the event, auctioning off meteor-related items. The meteor seemed to have a
magical effect on the people of the town. It finally became Polacco's grandmother's
headstone when she died. Paper.
Cat. #BTH-3173. $6.29-D. Click on image to enlarge it.
 Mrs. Katz
and Tush: This book shows the growth of a warm relationship between a lonely
Jewish widow and an African American boy who gives her a kitten to keep her company, and
visits her everyday to help care for it. As the visits progressed, Mrs. Katz and the boy,
Larnel, began to realize how much they had in common. Both had ancestors who were in
slavery at one time. Mrs. Katz shares the story of the Passover, when her people were
freed from their slavery. Knowing that Mrs. Katz dreads spending Passover alone, Larnel
asks if he can spend it with her. He helps her prepare the table, and all during the
preparation and meal Mrs. Katz explains the different traditions associated with the
Passover.
The day after the shared Passover Feast, the now young cat, Tush,
has a litter of kittens, and Mrs. Katz considers herself finally a "bubee." As
the years pass, and Larnel grows up to have his own family, Mrs. Katz is part of it. And
when Mrs. Katz dies, Larnel and his family say kaddish at her headstone. This is a
delightful story of inter-generational, inter-racial friendship, and shows that people of
every culture have similar human needs and feelings. Cat. # BTH-1238. $6.29-D. Click
on image to enlarge it.
 Mrs. Mack:
Like many young ladies of ten, Patricia yearned for a horse of her own. And during the
summer of her tenth year, which she was spending with her dad, she was just sure the dream
was about to come true. After all, she had just heard him tell her that this was the
summer she would learn to ride. But when she and her dad set out the next day, Patricia
decked out in new riding clothes her mother had gotten her, she got a rude awakening when
her dad drove her to the roughest part of town and stopped in front of a very shabby
stable. She felt immediately that she didn't belong, and she was not reassured in the
least when the instructor, Mrs. Mack, had two rough-looking boys show her around. They
made fun of her outfit and teased her. And then she meets Penny -- the most beautiful
horse ever, that no one ever rode. And she determines that someday she will be good enough
to ride her. Cat. #BTH-3174. $6.29-D
 Thunder
Cake. Putnam Paperstar, 1990. This is the story of how the author's
grandma helped her overcome her fear of thunderstorms by having her help make a
thunder cake. Her grandma first taught her to measure the number of miles the
storm was from them by counting from the time of seeing lightning to the time of
hearing thunder . Then they walked together through the farm, gathering the
ingredients-- eggs from the hens, milk from the cow, staples from the dry shed,
and then, finally, the secret ingredient, overripe strawberries and tomatoes.
While the cake baked, she talked with her grandma about fear and bravery. And
then they ate the cake, and she knew she wouldn't be afraid of thunderstorms
again. The pictures, of course, help to tell this story of a special
relationship Patricia shared with her grandmother. The recipe for the thunder
cake is included.
BTH-3175. $6.29-D
Still under construction. Hope to finish in a couple
of days.
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