Patricia Polacco Part 2

We are continuing our study of author/illustrator Patricia Polacco which we are doing with Author Fiesta. Today, we read 4 more of her books, though 2 of them were for "little" kids. (I didn't know she had books for different ages. We also watched Reading Rainbow's Rechenka's Eggs. This was a great video where you actually got to "meet" Patricia Polacco and watch her make some Pysanky eggs!

We've also read a biography, Firetalking, which is really good. But, so many of her stories tell us about her and her life! I am LOVING her books, and I can't believe it's taken me this long to find them.

Today we filled out an "author research form" which Cay Gibson at Author Fiesta created. Alexandra said her favorite books (we added that line) were Chicken Sunday and John Phillip Duck. Chicken Sunday is about Patricia when she was little. Her and 2 friends end up making some pysanky eggs to give to an elderly shopkeeper who ends up letting the kids sell them in his store. I REALLY want to get a pysanky kit.

 

Online, I found these 2 videos: the first one is about the history of pysanky eggs and the second one shows you how to make the eggs!

 

Alexandra's other favorite Polacco book, John Philip Duck, was about the ducks at Peabody Hotel in Memphis, Tennessee. My husband and I went to that museum on a school trip the summer before my senior year. At the hotel, the ducks are trained to spend the night on the roof and then they ride down the elevator and march into the water fountain to spend the day. They march to John Philip Souza. Polacco's books is "loosely based on actualy events." I was glad to find a video (thought not a very good one) of the ducks marching to Souza. Maybe we need to do a little Souza study???

My favorite book (so far) has been Thank You, Mr. Falker. This is another true story from Polacco's childhood. In this story, she tells about how much trouble she had learning to read and how stupid she felt at school, but she always loved to draw. But, a special teacher helped her during her 5th grade year... and now she's a famous author AND illustrator! Of course, this is one of the books that made me cry. How wonderful it is to have great people touch a life. And, each of us can touch a life in a very positive way! (Especially our own children!)

Next week, I plan on doing a free lapbook from homeschoolshare about one of Polacco's books, Mrs. Mack. We haven't read the book yet, but it looks like it's about horses, which I know Alexandra will enjoy.