The Goodness of Patricia Polacco's Books

Patricia Polacco has to be my all time favorite children's book author. I was introduced to her in my teaching credential program, and each year I discover that she has (yet another) book that is perfect to share with my students (and my toddler) for a myriad of reasons.

Reasons why I love her books:
1) Vocabulary: Her books are rich with challenging, beautiful, and imaginative vocabulary.
2) Her characters: My students (and admittedly, myself) connect to the struggles and hopes of her characters.
3) Perspective: She lived a great part of her life in urban Oakland (my home turf), and now lives on a farm in Ohio (or Michigan?).
4) Plot: She knows how to tell a good story.

Her books range from board books for babies to books for an elementary student or the young adult. And despite the diversity in subject matter and content of her books- all are high quality literature that I choose to read to my students time and time again.

Tell Me a Story Cards

Today I bought these Fairytale Mixups Creative Story Cards for my almost-3-year-old niece. Who would have guessed that she would love these? She did. She instantly (and without any directions or help) began using the picture cards to make up her own stories. She then preceded carry them around everywhere and play with them for the next hour or so. How wonderful is that?

As I literacy specialist, I know that activities like this are helpful for preschoolers to build important literacy skills before they enter school. Yeah for literacy! These cards encourage vocabulary development, foster creativity, help a child to understand character and story elements (beginning, middle, end, climax, etc...), and give a child the biggest gift of all- enthusiasm about stories.

If you're looking for a good birthday present go-to, or a fun, yet educational, rainy day activity for a wee one- these cards would be a fantastic choice. I am also thinking of picking up a set of these for my students that are learning English; they would be perfect to encourage speaking in complete sentences, using new vocabulary, and so much more. These cards would also be great for Speech Therapists or Special Education Teachers.