Patricia Polacco


Patricia Barber Polacco is an American author and illustrator. Throughout her school years, Polacco struggled to learn to read but found relief by expressing herself through art. Polacco endured teasing and hid her disability until a school teacher recognized she could not read and began to help her. Her book Thank You, Mr. Falker is Polacco's retelling of this encounter and its outcome. She also wrote such books as Mr. Lincoln's Way and The Lemonade Club.

Biography

Polacco was born Patricia Barber on July 11, 1944 in Lansing, Michigan, the daughter of a teacher and a salesman turned talk show host. She lived in Williamston, Michigan until the age of three, when her parents divorced and she moved with her mother and brother to her maternal grandmother's farm in Union City, Michigan. Many of Polacco's stories are influenced by this farm and the Russian folklore she heard from her grandmother, who died in 1949 when Polacco was five years old. During the summers, Polacco lived with her father and his Irish parents. "In both households I had these amazing storytellers," she said. The family did not have a television and Polacco said on NPR, "our evenings were spent listening to glorious tales being told by the grandparents." Polacco did not learn to read until she was nearly fourteen and struggled greatly in school. Finally, in junior high school, one of her teachers finally realized that she had dyslexia. The book Pink and Say comes from the life of a great-great-grandfather on her father's side, Sheldon Russell Curtis, who fought in the American Civil War and developed a moving friendship with a Black soldier named Pinkus Aylee.
In 1949, following the death of Polacco's maternal grandmother, her family moved to Coral Gables for three years and then the Rockridge district of Oakland, California. She attended Oakland Technical High School, where she became friends with Frank Oz. At institutions in the United States and Australia, she earned a Master's and PhD in Art History. Upon graduating, she worked as a restoration specialist in art museums. At the age of 41, Polacco began working on her first children's book. Polacco's mother was so confident in the books that she gave Polacco money to travel to Manhattan and set up meetings with publishers. During a week-long trip to New York, Polacco attended sixteen meetings where she showed seven or eight of her books. By the end of the week, all her books had sold.
Polacco resides in Union City, Michigan. Polacco has two children, Traci and Steven. Her marriage to Graeme L Blackman ended in divorce and she married chef and cooking instructor Enzo Mario Polacco on August 18, 1979. Polacco has been an outspoken critic of the No Child Left Behind Act due to its reliance on high-stakes testing.

Publications

Lillian Two Blossom The Keeping Quilt Rechenka's Eggs Meteor! Uncle Vova's Tree Babushka's Doll Just Plain Fancy Thunder Cake Appelemando's Dreams Dream Keeper Some Birthday! Chicken Sunday Mrs. Katz and Tush Picnic at Mudsock Meadow Babushka Baba Yaga The Bee Tree Firetalking My Rotten Redheaded Older Brother Pink and Say Tikvah Means Hope Babushka's Mother Goose My Ol' Man Aunt Chip And The Great Triple Creek Dam Affair I Can Hear The Sun: A Modern Myth The Trees of the Dancing Goats Casey at the Bat: A Ballad of the Republic Sung in the Year 1888 ; Author: Ernest Lawrence Thayer, Illustrator: Patricia PolaccoIn Enzo's Splendid Gardens Mrs. Mack Thank You, Mr. Falker Luba And The Wren Welcome Comfort The Butterfly Betty Doll Gracias, Sr. Falker, with Teresa MlawerMr. Lincoln's Way Christmas Tapestry When Lightning Comes In A Jar G is for Goat The Graves Family John Philip Duck Oh, Look! An Orange for Frankie Emma Kate The Graves Family Goes Camping Mommies Say Shhh Rotten Richie and the Ultimate Dare Ginger and Petunia Something About Hensley's The Lemonade Club For the Love of Autumn Someone for Mr. Sussman In Our Mothers' House January's Sparrow Junkyard Wonders Just in Time, Abraham Lincoln Bun Bun Button The Art of Miss Chew Bully Gifts of the Heart The Blessing Cup Clara and Davie Mr. Wayne's Masterpiece Tucky Jo and Little Heart An A From Miss Keller Fiona's Lace The Mermaid's Purse Because of Thursday Remembering Vera Holes in the Sky The Bravest Man in the World Sticks and Stones Go Ask Ozzie Palace of Books
  • ''Sea of Gold''

Literary awards

Articles written about Polacco

  • Vandergrift, Kay E. "Peacocks, Dreams, Quilts, and Honey: Patricia Polacco, A Woman's Voice of Remembrance," In Ways of Knowing: Literature and the Intellectual Life of Children. Ed. By Kay E. Vandergrift. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 1996, pp. 259–288.
  • Vandergrift, Kay E. "Patricia Polacco," in Twentieth-Century Children's Writers. ed. by Laura Berger. 4th ed. Detroit: St. James, 1995. 759–760.
  • , childrenslit.com; accessed on July 8, 2015.
  • , TimeforKids.com; accessed on July 8, 2015.