Thank You Mr. Falker

In Patricia Polacco's own words, "This story is truly autobiographical." She frequently uses stories from her life in her books. As the title states, she takes this opportunity to thank her fitfth grade teacher.

Tricia yearns to read as a result of her family's love of learning. However, when she picks up a book, she sees the letters as wiggly shapes. As she goes through school, students teas her and call her dumb. She begins to believe that she really is. She is not only learning more slowly than the other children, she is truly aware of it. She copes the best way she can, through her artwork. All of this changes when she gets to fifth grade. Mr. Falker practices with her everyday, and she steadily improves. It is an emotional moment when she truly begins to read. Patrica Polacco's illustrations are paired beautifully with her text. They portray beautifully how Tricia feels; the coloring of the character's faces show different emotions. The colors are intense and truly add to the reading experience.

The book touches on many different subjects, such as learning disabilities and bullying. I would use this book in a second or third grade classroom. There are great opportunities for character education lessons, as well as writing opportunities. Students would write letters to someone who made them feel good about themselves, or someone who has helped them.

Even though this is a children's book, I would recommend this book to anyone, student, teacher, adult. As teachers, this book reminds us how important we are to our students. The next child that walks in our door may be the next Patrica Polacco. Sometimes we do not realize how much impact we have in the lives of our students. What an incredibly special gift to Mr. Falker, I only hope to have a student be so grateful to me one day. I will be buying this book for the teachers and future teachers in my life, and will definitely be recommending it to my school guidance counselor.

http://www.patriciapolacco.com/books/falker/falker_index.html

Where the Sidewalk Ends

Where the Sidewalk Ends is Shel Silverstein's first collection of poems and drawings. It was first published in 1974. The collection begins with an "Invitation."

If you are a dreamer, come in,

If you are a dreamer, a wisher, a liar,

A hope-er, a pray-er, a magic bean buyer...

If you're a pretender, come sit by my fire

For we have some flax-golden tales to spin.

Come in!

Come in!

After that, it's one fabulous poem after another. Most are accompanied with Shel Silverstein's drawings. I remembered reading his poems as a child and received this 30th Anniversary Edition as a graduation gift. An added bonus in this edition is 12 new poems and illustrations. The poems don't collectively tell a story, but do take the imagination on a wild journey.

Many of Shel Silverstein's poems are humorous, but many are profound as well. This mixture makes for a great collection of quality poetry. For example, in the poem "The Search," the poet searches for a pot of gold but wonders what to look for once the search is over. In "Merry..." the poet points out that no one's talking brotherhood on March 25th. My descriptions don't do these poems justice, they're definitely worth the read.

His humorous poems are worth looking into as well. In "The Crocodile's Toothache," the dentist pulls out an extra tooth and the dentist says what's one more tooth. Then the the crocodile swallowed the dentist. "But what's one dentist, more or less?" "Jimmy Jet and His TV Set" is a funny poem about how a boy turns into a television.

Some poems work well for group recitation, and others feature repetition and lines that lend themselves to guessing and filling in the blank. The poem "What a Day" can be changed to "What a ________(anything)" and the blank words would have to rhyme with the title word in the blank. Some of the poems can be used to integrate other content areas. The poem "Sarah Cynthia Slyvia Stout Who Would Not Take the Garbage Out" can be used to discuss ecology and waste and consequences of not taking care of the environment. The poem could be the hook for the unit.

It is important to mention that Shel Silverstein has done black and white pencil drawings to accompany most of the poems. These cartoons help to give faces to some of the characters and explanations to some rhymes in the poetry. I definitely think they add to the poems.

I hope I've convinced you to take a look at the poetry of Shel Silverstein!

Each Peach Pear Plum

While we're on the topic of fairy tales, I wanted to share a book I found in the summer camp library. It was quite worn and a few pages are loose. The camp director said she loved the book so much that she donated it from her personal collection. I fell in love with it after the first two pages.

This clever, attention-grabbing book features all your favorite fairy tale and nursery rhyme characters (Cinderella, the three bears, Jack and Jill) in an I Spy/Where's Waldo? type setting. Short repeating rhymes give children clues to locate the (almost) hidden characters. "Mother Hubbard in the cellar, I spy Cinderella. Cinderella on the stair, I spy three bears."

Each Peach Pear Plum is an ALA Notable book recommended for baby to preschool. I would imagine that very young children would enjoy being read this book and locating the character, and early readers would enjoy the wordplay and the beat of the rhymes. It is the perfect length to keep the attention of a young child, and the pictures are detailed enough to sustain the attention of older ones. In addition to the hidden characters, there are plenty of other things to notice in the illustrations such as birds and rabbits. It is definitely worth taking a look at, I will be picking this one up for my younger cousins!

Jamie O'Rourke and the Big Potato

With a last name like Capozzalo, you'd never guess that I'm 50% Irish. I grew up hearing plenty of stories about peeling potatoes for 20 people for dinner and learned plenty about the Potato Famine when studying my family's history and the plight of the Irish. I have to admit, Jamie O'Rourke's story is one I haven't heard. Jamie O'Rourke and the Big Potato: An Irish Folktale, isn't really a folktale at all... at least in my opinion. In class, we've defined a folktale as a story based down from generation to generation. I do not think this is such a story. This book falls into the category of a fairy tale: a magical, mystical, make believe story.

To prove my point, let me fill you in about Jamie O'Rourke and his big potato. Jamie O'Rourke is a lazy man who makes his wife do all of the hard work. When she hurts herself, Jamie needs to figure out how the family will eat. Jamie finds a leprechaun and instead of getting his pot o' gold, he gets a seed for the biggest potato in the world. The potato grows and grows, and Jamie and his wife share the potato to everyone. The townspeople get so sick of potatoes that they tell him that if he doesn't plan the potato seed ever again, he and his wife will always have enough food to eat.

Last time I checked, potatoes can't grow to be the size of a house. So, in my opinion, this book is a fairy tale.

But anyhow, why is this book worth checking out? First of all, Tommie dePaola is an Newbery and Caldecott award winner. His silly illustrations in his book are in the style of another one of my favorites, Strega Nona (with one "n" - I actually researched why, but that's a blog for a another day). Of course, you'd assume the illustrations would have to be silly, because he is illustrating a giant potato. All of the characters have pudgy, round little faces and great facial expressions, from the disdain at Jamie's laziness to the amazement at the size of the potato. These great illustrations are paired beautifully with the text, from the small square drawings to the two page spread.

This story shows that sometimes taking the easy way out isn't all it's cracked up to be and we should be careful what we wish for. Although in the end, Jamie is rewarded for his laziness, and is not foolish after all. This book could lend itself to a discussion of the rewards of hard work.

So although I wouldn't call this book a true Irish folktale, I'd definitely bring it out near St. Patrick's Day. If you really enjoy Jamie O'Rourke, you can also check him out in Jamie O'Rourke and the Pooka.