Picture of author.

Patricia Polacco

Author of Thank You, Mr. Falker

78+ Works 44,467 Members 2,554 Reviews 29 Favorited

About the Author

Patricia Polacco was born in Lansing, Michigan on July 11, 1944. She attended Oakland Tech High School in Oakland, California before heading off to the California College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland, then Laney Community College in Oakland. She then set off for Monash University, Mulgrave, show more Australia and the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, Melbourne, Australia where she received a Ph.D in Art History, Emphasis on Iconography. After college, she restored ancient pieces of art for museums. She didn't start writing children's books until she was 41 years old. She began writing down the stories that were in her head, and was then encouraged to join the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators. There she learned how to put together a dummy and get a story into the form of a children's picture book. Her mother paid for a trip to New York, where the two visited 16 publishers in one week. She submitted everything she had to more than one house. By the time she returned home the following week, she had sold just about everything. Polacco has won the 1988 Sydney Taylor Book Award for The Keeping Quilt, and the 1989 International Reading Association Award for Rechenka's Eggs. She was inducted into the Author's Hall of Fame by the Santa Clara Reading Council in 1990, and received the Commonwealth Club of California's Recognition of Excellence that same year for Babushka's Doll, and again in 1992 for Chicken Sunday. She also won the Golden Kite Award for Illustration from the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators for Chicken Sunday in 1992, as well as the Boston Area Educators for Social Responsibility Children's Literature and Social Responsibility Award. In 1993, she won the Jane Adams Peace Assoc. and Women's Intl. League for Peace and Freedom Honor award for Mrs. Katz and Tush for its effective contribution to peace and social justice. She has won Parent's Choice Honors for Some Birthday in 1991, the video Dream Keeper in 1997 and Thank You Mr. Falker in 1998. In 1996, she won the Jo Osborne Award for Humor in Children's Literature. Her titles The Art of Miss. Chew and The Blessing Cup made The New York Times Best Seller List. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Image credit: http://www.patriciapolacco.com/pr/polacco_2.jpg

Series

Works by Patricia Polacco

Thank You, Mr. Falker (1998) 3,573 copies
Thunder Cake (1990) 2,930 copies
Pink and Say (1994) 2,783 copies
The Keeping Quilt (1988) 2,758 copies
Chicken Sunday (1992) 2,680 copies
Mrs. Katz and Tush (1992) 1,776 copies
The bee tree (1993) 1,494 copies
Babushka's Doll (1990) 1,483 copies
Rechenka's Eggs (1656) 1,364 copies
The Junkyard Wonders (2010) 1,289 copies
Just Plain Fancy (1990) 1,257 copies
Mr. Lincoln's Way (2001) 1,238 copies
The Butterfly (2000) 1,200 copies
John Philip Duck (2004) 792 copies
Emma Kate (2005) 755 copies
Christmas Tapestry (2002) 731 copies
For the Love of Autumn (2008) 713 copies
Babushka Baba Yaga (1993) 669 copies
An Orange for Frankie (2004) 580 copies
Mrs. Mack (1998) 518 copies
Some Birthday! (1991) 478 copies
In Our Mothers' House (1967) 476 copies
Meteor! (1987) 455 copies
The Graves Family (2003) 436 copies
Welcome Comfort (1999) 407 copies
Betty Doll (2001) 387 copies
My Ol' Man (1995) 377 copies
The Lemonade Club (2007) 347 copies
Fiona's Lace (2014) 322 copies
Picnic at Mudsock Meadow (1992) 310 copies
G is for Goat (2003) 302 copies
Luba and the Wren (1999) 292 copies
Tikvah Means Hope (1615) 280 copies
Appelemando's Dreams (1991) 279 copies
I Can Hear the Sun (1996) 269 copies
The Art of Miss Chew (2012) 258 copies
An A From Miss Keller (2015) 257 copies
The Blessing Cup (2013) 245 copies
Bully (2012) 243 copies
January's Sparrow (2009) 241 copies
Clara and Davie (2014) 222 copies
Mommies Say Shhh (2005) 221 copies
Bun Bun Button (2011) 220 copies
Something About Hensley's (2006) 214 copies
Babushka's Mother Goose (1995) 192 copies
Uncle Vova's Tree (1989) 191 copies
Oh, Look! (2004) 188 copies
Someone for Mr. Sussmann (2008) 178 copies
Ginger and Petunia (2007) 176 copies
Tucky Jo and Little Heart (2015) 171 copies
Gifts of the Heart (2013) 151 copies
In Enzo's Splendid Garden (1997) 139 copies
Firetalking (1994) 134 copies
Mr. Wayne's Masterpiece (2014) 122 copies
The Mermaid's Purse (2016) 100 copies
Holes in the Sky (2018) 75 copies
Remembering Vera (2017) 72 copies
Because of Thursday (2016) 60 copies
Palace of Books (2023) 46 copies
Sticks and Stones (2020) 44 copies
Still Firetalking (2014) 26 copies

Associated Works

Casey at the Bat: A Ballad of the Republic Sung in the Year 1888 (1888) — Illustrator, some editions — 1,429 copies

Tagged

African American (304) animals (224) baseball (169) biography (180) bullying (353) cats (157) children (365) children's (559) children's literature (253) Christmas (497) Civil War (405) diversity (247) dyslexia (242) Easter (324) easy (311) family (1,335) fiction (1,483) friendship (882) grandparents (233) historical fiction (579) history (323) holidays (181) immigration (226) Jewish (295) love (164) multicultural (570) non-fiction (206) Patricia Polacco (632) picture book (3,201) poetry (206) Polacco (431) read aloud (162) reading (349) realistic fiction (770) Russia (373) school (407) teachers (249) to-read (181) traditions (165) WWII (160)

Common Knowledge

Members

Discussions

Reviews

This book would be good for 2-4 grade because of the length of the book and the depth of the topics.
This book is about a young girl is placed in a class for students with special needs and she learns to embrace her uniqueness and learns to believe in herself.
I think this could be valuable as a read-aloud for students to learn about including special needs students as well as learning to embrace their own uniqueness.
 
Flagged
mlutey22 | 148 other reviews | Mar 22, 2024 |
This is a touching memoir of a girl who is put in a special education classroom. She faces bullying and isolation but finds community in her classroom. Sensitive topics like bullying, name calling(R-word), and death of a classmate. I would not use as the content is outdated(3-5th).
 
Flagged
zrobinson | 148 other reviews | Mar 18, 2024 |
I am drawn to the works of this artist. Each book tells a story from her young life. Patricia Polacco weaves very poignant stories of lessons learned from her childhood. While the illustrations seem large and unartistic, still, I am impressed that each book is rendered with facial expressions that follow the story. Each character is drawn with the emotion that accompanies the feeling.

This is yet another book in which the author focuses on the teachers who made a difference in her life. In this book, Miss Keller is one of those teachers we all may have had in school. This is a teacher who pushes her students to write to the best of what she expects, a story with feeling, meaning and something that grabs the reader to continue finish the work.

This is a teacher who may scare most students because she is very blunt about her expectations, and calls out the student in class to express what is lacking. In turn, this helps others understand what is needed to qualify for an A. And, rumor has it that Miss "Killer Keller" never gives an A to any student.

No matter how hard she tries, Trica cannot write to Ms Keller's standards. Frustrated, Trica is disappointed and takes the admonishments hard. Then, when her beloved neighborhood man, known as "Pop," dies, Trica has the courage and the depth of meaning to write what is needed for an A.

Writing from experience of grief, love and the soul retching feeling of losing a wonderful friend who has impacted on her life, Trica is now able to write from her pain and express the love felt for a man who impacted and helped so many. Cookies were baked, stories were told, and a seat on the steps when a listening ear is needed. Pop listened to Trica's depiction of this teacher as the meanest. Later, he told the story of how Miss Keller mentored his son, and later in life paid his college tuition.

When Miss Keller tells her to bring a thesaurus to school and to look up the overused word "love." Pop was helpful in providing a thesaurus to Trica. Later, when the assignment to interview an older person was given to the class, Pop was the subject of her asssignment. Telling her the story of his son and how hard he worked for Miss Keller and how assignments were picked apart and made to work over and over until he got it right.

Her ability and caring to send Pop's son to college, changed his life. He wrote for many of the biggest newspapers, and received a Pulitzer Prize for writing. This is the story of Miss Keller and her devotion to her class members.

Tragically, Pop died. Through her grief, Trica now wrote with depth of feeling, and she received an A for her personal narrative.
… (more)
½
 
Flagged
Whisper1 | 14 other reviews | Mar 16, 2024 |
A group of outsiders who are outcasts because of disabilities. The teacher inspires the class to band together. A child ends up passing away and they name the plane after them.
I would use this in fourth and fifth grade. Also to teach teachers. Love it.
 
Flagged
stewartj22 | 148 other reviews | Mar 15, 2024 |

Lists

Awards

You May Also Like

Associated Authors

Statistics

Works
78
Also by
2
Members
44,467
Popularity
#370
Rating
½ 4.3
Reviews
2,554
ISBNs
479
Languages
6
Favorited
29

Charts & Graphs