Patricia Polacco, Author Philomel Books $19.99 (64p) ISBN 978-0-399-22747-9
Renowned for portraying favorite episodes of her family's history in her picture books, Polacco (Pink and Say; Chicken Sunday) here mines the treasures of her grandmother's Russian heritage. Many of the 24 stories and rhymes in this unusual volume...
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Patricia Polacco, Author Philomel Books $17.99 (32p) ISBN 978-0-399-21800-2
A group of children stuck in the drabbest of villages share a secret: when their friend Appelemando dreams, they can actually see brightly colored, amazing objects float out of the top of his head. Soon they discover that the images stick to...
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Patricia Polacco, Author Putnam Publishing Group $16.99 (32p) ISBN 978-0-399-21811-8
A cast of clamorous children and colorful adults vivifies Polacco's latest childhood memory. Know-it-all Hester is always the first to point out shy William's shortcomings. At the annual Halloween picnic, however, William--having suffered...
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Patricia Polacco, Author Philomel Books $16.99 (32p) ISBN 978-0-399-21965-8
The newest gem from Polacco's treasure chest of family stories extolls the virtues of reading--and of taking a study break. Young Mary Ellen would rather be ``outdoors running and playing'' than indoors with a book. Sympathetic to her feelings, her...
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Patricia Polacco, Author Philomel Books $16.99 (32p) ISBN 978-0-399-22531-4
Living alone in the forest, Baba Yaga watches longingly as the babushkas of the village care for their grandchildren. Snatching an outfit off a clothesline, the wizened, long-eared creature disguises herself as one of the village grandmothers and...
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Patricia Polacco, Author Yearling Books $6.99 (32p) ISBN 978-0-440-40936-6
Zesty art and sensitive storytelling light up these two books, the first about an elderly Jewish widow and her young African American neighbor, the second set in Amish country. Ages 4-8. (Apr.)
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Patricia Polacco, Author Aladdin Paperbacks $7.99 (0p) ISBN 978-0-689-80255-3
In this vibrantly illustrated cautionary tale, a selfish girl becomes ``quite nice after all'' after learning a valuable lesson from a doll that comes to life. Ages 4-8. (Aug.)
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Patricia Polacco, Author Philomel Books $16.99 (32p) ISBN 978-0-399-23107-0
It's fiasco al fresco when Polacco (The Trees of the Dancing Goats; Pink and Say) dips into her well of family stories to serve up this cumulative tale of mayhem set in her husband Enzo's Italian restaurant. It all starts with a ""fuzzy old bee,...
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Patricia Polacco, Author Aladdin Paperbacks $7.99 (32p) ISBN 978-0-689-82036-6
A girl burdened with a bratty big brother tries to do something, anything, better than he can. ""The text rings true with the authentic battling words of childhood spats,"" said PW. Ages 4-8. (Sept.)
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Patricia Polacco, Author Paperstar Book $6.99 (32p) ISBN 978-0-698-11633-7
This ""direct yet resonant"" retelling of a Russian folktale has ""sumptuous colors, a rich melange of patterns and textures--and even a sprinkling of forest fairies,"" said PW. Ages 4-8. (Jan.)
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Patricia Polacco, Author Paperstar Book $6.99 (40p) ISBN 978-0-698-11770-9
Spinning a tale about her traveling-salesman father, Polacco ""so effectively evokes time, place and personality that her characters come to seem like old friends,"" said PW. Ages 5-up. (May)
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Patricia Polacco, Author Putnam Publishing Group $5.95 (32p) ISBN 978-0-399-22407-2
As depicted in Polacco's typically ebullient artwork, all heck breaks loose when a meteor lands ``smack-dab in the middle of a yard'' in Union City, Mich. Ages 4-8. (Sept.)
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Patricia Polacco, Author . Philomel $16.99 (40p) ISBN 978-0-399-23754-6
Everyone thinks Eugene "Mean Gene" Esterhause, the school bully, is trouble "with a capital T." Everyone but Mr. Lincoln, that is, "the coolest principal in the whole world," who is determined to reach the boy after he's...
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Patricia Polacco, Author Dodd Mead $12.95 (32p) ISBN 978-0-396-08910-0
The last event people in Union City remember was when ""Bertie Felspaw got her elbow caught in the revolving door at the library over Coldwater way.'' It's no wonder they make such a big fuss over the meteor that lands on Gramma and Granpa's farm....
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Patricia Polacco, Author Philomel Books $16.99 (32p) ISBN 978-0-399-21617-6
For the children in an extended family of Russian immigrants, Christmas at Uncle Vova's provides a literal and visual feast. There is the savory porridge, kutya (each aunt's recipe is different); there are paper ornaments, a sleigh ride and, not...
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Patricia Polacco, Author Doubleday Books for Young Readers $15.95 (32p) ISBN 978-0-553-05884-0
Naomi and Ruth are sisters who live on a farm in Pennyslvania's Amish country, where people take pride in their uncomplicated lives. But Naomi complains that everything in her life--from her clothes to her chickens--is plain. The girl longs for ``som
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Patricia Polacco, Author Doubleday Books for Young Readers $15.95 (48p) ISBN 978-0-385-32059-7
Polacco's (Chicken Sunday) characteristically rich pencil and gouache artwork depict a neighborhood in her Oakland, Calif., hometown, showing how it weathered the devastating firestorms of 1992. Mr. Roth and his young neighbors Duane and Justine...
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Patricia Polacco, Author Philomel Books $16.99 (40p) ISBN 978-0-399-22822-3
Polacco (Pink and Say; Chicken Sunday) again spins a family anecdote into a picture book, this time focusing on the adventures of her traveling-salesman father. Every day brings a surprise during the summers young Patricia spends with her dad, who...
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Patricia Polacco, Author Philomel Books $16.99 (40p) ISBN 978-0-399-23167-4
Girls who love horses will strongly identify with Polacco's (Thank You, Mr. Falker) autobiographical story of a climactic Michigan summer. Ten-year-old Pat is thrilled when her father decides she's old enough to learn to ride. Pat assumes she is...
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Patricia Polacco, Author Philomel Books $16.99 (32p) ISBN 978-0-399-22520-8
``It started that summer two years ago, the one that steamed into Oakland like a thief in the night''--Polacco's (Pink and Say; Tikvah Means Hope, see p. 133) use of language is characteristically fluid, and her emotion-suffused illustrations are...
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Patricia Polacco, Author Philomel Books $16.99 (40p) ISBN 978-0-399-23168-1
Polacco (Rechenka's Eggs; Babushka Baba Yaga) again uses old-world Russia as the backdrop for a timeless, vigorously illustrated tale, this one a variation on The Fisherman and His Wife. Here it is a young girl who rescues an enchanted creature, a...
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Patricia Polacco, Putnam, $17.99 (48p) ISBN 978-0-399-25471-0
In Polacco's (January's Sparrow) third book touching on Civil War history, two contemporary boys and their grandmother visit a museum. There, Michael exclaims that it "must have been cool to fight in that war!" and Derek recalls playing a video game
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Patricia Polacco. Putnam, $17.99 (40p) ISBN 978-0-399-25472-7
Brimming with nostalgia, heartfelt sentimentality, and eccentricity, this portrait of a tight-knit intergenerational bond will charm Polacco enthusiasts with its old-fashioned tone and bright illustrations. Even when she is illustrating a picture of
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Patricia Polacco. Scholastic Press, $16.99 (40p) ISBN 978-0-545-35477-6
Writing with unguarded emotion, Polacco offers a porthole into Clara Barton’s early childhood. Plagued by a speech impediment, Barton sought refuge outdoors, caring for animals, and relied on her nurturing older brother Davie. Polacco’s mixed-media...
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Patricia Polacco, Author Philomel Books $16.99 (32p) ISBN 978-0-399-22133-0
Polacco--in the role of young narrator--introduces another cast of characters from her fondly remembered childhood. Brothers Stewart and Winston often invite the girl to join them and their Gramma Eula Mae--whose choir singing is ``like slow thunder
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Patricia Polacco, Author . Philomel $16.99 (32p) ISBN 978-0-399-24223-6
Much to the consternation of their young shepherdesses, the goats in their charge are on the loose and determined to let nothing stand in the way of their freedom. The pond certainly doesn't prove to be an obstacle. "Oh, look, we see water....
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Patricia Polacco, Author . Philomel $16.99 (48p) ISBN 978-0-399-24262-5
Polacco (Thank You, Mr. Falker
) adds another feather to her picture-book cap with this fictionalized look at how a lobby fountain at the Peabody Hotel in Memphis, Tenn., famously became home to a group of performing ducks. During the Depression,...
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Patricia Polacco, Author . Puffin $6.99 (40p) ISBN 978-0-14-240196-5
After her mother's death, the author finds her parent's beloved doll, and the note attached to it inspires this story. "Polacco again elegantly embroiders a patch from the fabric of her own life in a moving tale that demonstrates the...
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Patricia Polacco, Author . Philomel $16.99 (48p) ISBN 978-0-399-24302-8
Holiday treats abound in a colorful and touching story of generosity and the ties that bind, based on a story of the author's great-uncle. Young Frankie, along with his eight siblings and Ma, awaits Pa's return home from a trip to get the...
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Patricia Polacco, Author . Puffin $6.99 (0p) ISBN 978-0-698-11965-9
In a starred review, PW
called this tale of an overweight foster child, befriended by the equally rotund school custodian (who heads out of town every Christmas Eve), "a warm blend of fantasy and reality that delivers a satisfying surprise...
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Patricia Polacco, Author . Philomel $16.99 (40p) ISBN 978-0-399-23164-3
Polacco (Betty Doll) once again mines her own reminiscences, framing this offering around two family reunions, one long ago, one present day. Roly-poly aunties and Gramma, swathed in housedresses and flowered aprons and bearing "zillions of...
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Patricia Polacco, Author . Picture Puffin $6.99 (40p) ISBN 978-0-698-11922-2
"Even if it is a bit subtle, the happy ending puts an agreeable spin on the standard version of [ 'The Fisherman and His Wife'], teaching the same moral in a light and positive manner," said PW. "A timeless, vigorously...
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Patricia Polacco, Author . Philomel $16.99 (28p) ISBN 978-0-399-24452-0
Polacco (An Orange for Frankie
) takes a familiar premise and turns it into food for thought. The brief and knowing text, narrated by an unnamed pigtailed girl, catalogs the many ways the title character makes the perfect best friend ("We sit...
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Patricia Polacco, Author . S&S/Aladdin $6.99 (32p) ISBN 978-0-689-84447-8
This 10th-anniversary edition of Polacco's family story about a quilt made from an immigrant Jewish family's clothing from their Russian homeland "adds a few squares to the original story with expanded text and art," noted PW. Ages...
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Patricia Polacco, Author . Philomel $16.99 (40p) ISBN 978-0-399-25075-0
Polacco’s (The Keeping Quilt
) exuberant style blasts through this predictable yet rewarding tale of a successful Jewish shadkhen
(matchmaker) who has one client for whom she cannot find a match (readers will quickly guess why). Narrated by...
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Patricia Polacco, Author Philomel Books $16.99 (32p) ISBN 978-0-399-22231-3
In Thunder Cake , a grandmother helps her granddaughter overcome her fear of thunder by baking a special cake while a storm threatens. Although the book's concept is good, it does not fulfill its promise. The story is poorly paced: the storm...
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Patricia Polacco, Author Doubleday Books for Young Readers $16.99 (32p) ISBN 978-0-553-08122-0
An elderly widow and a scrawny, abandoned kitten provide each other with love and comfort in this gentle picture book. Lonely after her husband's death, Mrs. Katz appreciates the frequent visits from her young neighbor Larnel and his mother. Things...
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Patricia Polacco, Author Philomel Books $16.99 (32p) ISBN 978-0-399-21470-7
Will is trying to fish, but his younger sister Mabel keeps scaring away the fish with her noisy questions, like, ``What makes it rain?'' and, ``Where does the wind come from?'' Out from the bushes comes Lillian Two Blossom, an old Indian woman who...
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Patricia Polacco, Philomel, $17.99 (48p) ISBN 978-0-399-25078-1
As in Thank You, Mr. Falker, Polacco examines her childhood, her confused awareness of herself and her schoolmates as different—"retards," according to their common nemesis—and her teacher, an imposing and passionate woman who changes their lives....
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Patricia Polacco, Author, Patricia Lee Gauch, Editor, Patricia Polacco, Illustrator Philomel Books $17.99 (40p) ISBN 978-0-399-23169-8
Like Where Does Joe Go? (reviewed above), this warm blend of fantasy and reality delivers a satisfying surprise ending. Ostracized at school, an overweight foster child named Welcome Comfort is befriended by the equally rotund school custodian, who...
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Patricia Polacco, Author, Patricia Polacco, Illustrator . Philomel $16.99 (48p) ISBN 978-0-399-23955-7
Polacco's (The Keeping Quilt) knack for spinning seemingly disparate characters and plot elements into personal yarns works to great effect in this holiday picture book, based on a "true story" told as a church homily. Jonathan resents...
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Patricia Polacco. S&S/Wiseman, $17.99 (48p) ISBN 978-1-4424-8724-6
Polacco (Clara and Davie) adds to her library of autobiographical stories with this tale about her Irish forebear Fiona, who learns lace making when her mother’s once-expert hands are stricken with arthritis. Fiona’s father, Mick, tells his children
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Patricia Polacco. Putnam, $18.99 (48p) ISBN 978-1-5247-3948-5
This follow-up to Chicken Sunday again features Miss Eula and child Trisha, based on Polacco’s childhood self. Polacco describes Trisha’s loss of her beloved Babushka—who tells her before she dies that stars are holes in the sky that lead to heaven,
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Patricia Polacco. S&S/Wiseman, $17.99 (32p) ISBN 978-1-4814-4227-5
In this moving and loosely autobiographical offering, Polacco (The Mermaid’s Purse) recounts the story of Vera, an “ancient little yellow dog” she met in 1962 while visiting a relative stationed on a Coast Guard base near San Francisco. Polacco...
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Patricia Polacco. S&S/Wiseman, $17.99 (40p) ISBN 978-1-4814-2140-9
Polacco (The Keeping Quilt) returns with a scattered story of longtime loves and new beginnings. Good things always come to Annie on Thursdays; it was on that day that she met her husband, gave birth to her sons, and opened a diner renowned for its...
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Patricia Polacco. Putnam, $17.99 (48p) ISBN 978-0-399-16692-1
Through lyrical writing and expressive images, Polacco (The Blessing Cup) returns to recurring themes from her books: the importance of family, community, and reading. Polacco again draws on her family history—basing her heroine, Estella, on her own
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Patricia Polacco. Philomel, $17.99 (32p) ISBN 978-0-399-25703-2
As she did in Thank You, Mr. Falker and The Junkyard Wonders, Polacco pays homage to an influential teacher from her childhood—in this case, two of them. Trisha’s homeroom teacher, Mr. Donovan, who has “a laugh that sounded like bells ringing,”...
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Patricia Polacco. Putnam, $17.99 (48p) ISBN 978-0-399-25704-9
Polacco’s middle-school variation on Mean Girls is an overwrought but compelling literary hybrid: it reads like a novella with pictures. Sixth-grader Lyla and her brother, Jack, are new kids at a Bay Area school with a cutthroat social scene. Lyla...
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Patricia Polacco. S&S/Wiseman, $17.99 (48p) ISBN 978-1-4424-5047-9
In this prequel to The Keeping Quilt, readers learn how Polacco’s great-grandmother Anna and her parents were forced from their shtetl in Czarist Russia and made their way to America. Among the few treasures the family took with them was a vibrantly
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Patricia Polacco. Putnam, $17.99 (40p) ISBN 978-0-399-16094-3
It’s Richie and Trisha’s last Christmas on Grampa’s farm, and they’re convinced that the new housekeeper, who comes in the wake of Gramma’s death, does not belong. But Kay Lamity gradually wins them over with her domestic talents, comforting bosom,...
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Patricia Polacco. Putnam, $17.99 (40p) ISBN 978-0-399-16095-0
In Polacco’s world, children confront fears and solve problems with the help of loving adults, their exchanges captured with exceptional powers of observation; in this story, she recalls overcoming a paralyzing fear of speaking in public. Young...
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Patricia Polacco, Author, Patricia Polacco, Illustrator . Philomel $16.99 (48p) ISBN 978-0-399-24034-8
Polacco (Betty Doll) mines the theme of children nourished by unexpected friendship, tosses in a little light horror and comes up with over-the-top hilarity. Sara and Seth befriend the Graves family, the strange new neighbors who've purchased...
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Patricia Polacco, Author, Patricia Polacco, Illustrator . Philomel $16.99 (40p) ISBN 978-0-399-24341-7
Polacco takes readers back to the land of the busy, barefoot and babushka-clad villagers last visited in Oh, Look!
, although this time the results are less satisfying. A passel of children gambols through rolling farmland, delighting in the...
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Patricia Polacco, Author, Patricia Polacco, Illustrator Philomel Books $16.99 (32p) ISBN 978-0-399-24018-8
Patricia Polacco celebrates goats and their antics in G Is for Goat. In a rhyming text, the artist's signature babushka-clad girls cope with nannies and kids: ""P is for Push,/ when goats just won't go./ Q is for Quit,/ when goats just say no.""...
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Patricia Polacco, Author, Patricia Polacco, Illustrator Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing $16 (32p) ISBN 978-0-689-80862-3
Polacco's (Babushka's Doll) warmhearted memoir can easily be pressed into double duty for both Hanukkah and Christmas reading. On the family farm in Michigan, Trisha and Richard watch as Babushka and Grampa prepare for Hanukkah in their native...
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Patricia Polacco, Author, Patricia Polacco, Illustrator . Philomel $16.99 (40p) ISBN 978-0-399-24539-8
Droll text and playfully hyperbolic art serve up a piggish portion of humor in Polacco's (The Graves Family
) tale starring a porcine pet with plenty of personality. Petunia's owner, a "brilliant pianist" who teaches musical...
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Patricia Polacco, Author, Patricia Polacco, Illustrator Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing $17 (40p) ISBN 978-0-671-72750-5
The entire family has forgotten Patricia's birthday. And to make matters worse, Dad has proposed an evening trip to the Clay Pit at the edge of town--``one of the scariest places on earth.'' Armed with campfire provisions and outfitted in rain gear...
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Patricia Polacco, Author, Patricia Polacco, Illustrator Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing $17.95 (40p) ISBN 978-0-671-68343-6
Little Natasha can't leave her Babushka--Russian grandmother--alone: while Babushka methodically attempts to finish her laundry and livestock-feeding, the impatient girl always has another, more urgent agenda. When Babushka goes out, she presents...
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Patricia Polacco, Author, Patricia Polacco, Illustrator Philomel Books $16.99 (40p) ISBN 978-0-399-23638-9
Polacco (Thank You, Mr. Falker) again elegantly embroiders a patch from the fabric of her own life in a moving tale that demonstrates the importance of family legacies. ""I know that someday you'll read this when your heart is aching,"" reads the...
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Patricia Polacco, Author, Patricia Polacco, Illustrator Philomel Books $16.99 (48p) ISBN 978-0-399-23170-4
Polacco continues to mine her family history, this time telling the story of an aunt's childhood in wartime France. Young Monique doesn't comprehend the brutality of the Nazis' mission--until the day three German soldiers find her admiring a...
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Patricia Polacco, Author, Patricia Polacco, Illustrator . Philomel $16.99 (48p) ISBN 978-0-399-24540-4
Miss Wichelman, an energetic fifth-grade teacher, assures her students they can be anything they want to be (“If you dream it... then you can BE it!”). She keeps a basket of lemons in her classroom, repeatedly asking, “And if life...
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Patricia Polacco, Author, Patricia Polacco, Illustrator . Philomel $22.99 (96p) ISBN 978-0-399-25077-4
Based on actual events, Polacco’s (In Our Mothers’ House
) story is at once horrifying and heartening. It centers on the Crosswhite family, slaves who flee their Kentucky plantation after witnessing the merciless whipping of January, a...
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Patricia Polacco, Author, Patricia Polacco, Illustrator Philomel Books $17.99 (32p) ISBN 978-0-399-21501-8
An old woman named Babushka always wins first prize in the Easter festival for her exquisitely painted Ukrainian eggs. When she finds a wounded goose outside her house, Babushka takes her in, cares for her until she is strong again, and names her...
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Patricia Polacco, Author, Patricia Polacco, Illustrator Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing $17.95 (32p) ISBN 978-0-671-72751-2
Younger siblings, take heart: Polacco's ( Rechenka's Eggs ; Chicken Sunday ) chipper new picture book offers solace to anyone encumbered with a bratty big brother. Patricia is continually aggravated by her older brother, who has ``orange hair that...
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Patricia Polacco, Author, Polacco, Author Philomel Books $16.99 (40p) ISBN 978-0-399-23166-7
Fans of Polacco's (Thundercake; Pink and Say) work know well her talent for weaving her colorful family history throughout her picture books. Here Polacco shares her childhood triumph over dyslexia and discovery of reading in an inspiring if...
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Patricia Polacco, Author, K. Gilson, Editor, Patricia Polacco, Illustrator Putnam Publishing Group $6.99 (40p) ISBN 978-0-698-11887-4
PW called this story of a 10-year-old girl whose father decides she is old enough to ride a horse ""inviting. The drawings convey the emotions of each scene, adding emphasis to pivotal points."" Ages 4-8. (Jan.)
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Patricia Polacco. S&S/Wiseman, $17.99 (56p) ISBN 978-1-4814-9461-8
Polacco (Holes in the Sky) meshes fact and fiction in a lengthy, emotion-steeped story that opens seven decades after the sinking of the Titanic, as a fictitious survivor tells his grandson about the horrific event. Jonathan is a nine-year-old...
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Patricia Polacco. S&S/Wiseman, $18.99 (48p) ISBN 978-1-5344-2622-1
Polacco (Holes in the Sky), again writing autobiographically about her youth, pays homage to a schoolmate named Thom, a gawky white boy who sports horn-rimmed glasses. After Trisha arrives at her new school in Michigan with a pink face rash, her...
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Patricia Polacco. S&S/Wiseman, $18.99 (56p) ISBN 978-1-5344-5131-5
Polacco offers gratitude for her childhood public library in this earnest autobiographical picture book tribute. When a white-presenting first grader leaves the family farm for Battle Creek, Mich., she finds it’s not easy being the new kid. But the...
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