This is a great book to use to help children understand the hardships of loosing a job

My Ol' Man is a great book because it has magic in it and I like when pa tells them stories of his traveling. My favorite part of this book is the photographs inside the cover because those are actual photos of her family.

This is a book about a dad and his daughter. It's the girl's birthday and the dad and the two brothers all forgot. Instead of celabrating her birthday, they go to a very scary place. If you want to know if they get to celebrate, go and read the book.

When Patricia woke up she knew that it was her birthday. She expected to find a cake, candles and gifts, but she did not. It seemed that every one had forgoton her birthday. When her father got home from work her brother and cousin Bill, planned to take Patricia down to The Clay Pit-- the scariest place on earth. Read this book to see what happens.

Some Birthday!, by Patricia Polacco is another shining example of her incredible ability to write amazing children's literature. This book is full of imaginative events that all children dream about. Patricia Polacco creates beautiful illustrations that catch the eyes of children ages 4 - 104! This is definitely a "must have" not only for Patricia Polacco fans, but for all fans of wonderful children's literature.

I am seriously conflicted about this book. No doubt it is well written and excellently illustrated. My problem is with the basic story and the "revisionism" of Baba Yaga's place in the world which seems indicative of a general trend to root all evil out of children's literature. In my opinion evil and fear are important elements in fairy tales and they prepare children to deal with the real world. Classic (pre-Grimm) fairy tales were incredibly graphic and scary (see Marina Warner's "From the Beast to the Blonde"). Baba Yaga has a definite and clear place in Slavic fairy tales--she is the main "evildoer" who eats children, etc. Let her be that!

I recommed this book for people who like to laugh. It is an interesting book because it descdides the adventure of baba yaga. I enjoyed reading it alot. I thought this was a good book.

I have been reading these books by Patricia Polacco since I was in the second grade. I can't believe that I actually remembered the author. They are very vivide books. It has now been about ten years since I last saw one of these books and i still rememger what they are about.
One of my favorites is the one about the Rhubarb which made me want to try Rhubarb (Sorry if I didn't spell it right) anyways if you need something to read to your kids these have excellant drawings (I'm an artist just because of these books)
They are wonderful I would recomend these to everyone not just kids.

Patricia Polacco does an excellent job in creating the masterpiece, The Bee Tree. She goes into bubbly detail of the adventurous journey that the characters take to find...the bee tree!

Mary Ellen is tired of reading books indoors. Her Grandfather offers to go on a "bee tree hunt". They capture a few bees in a jar, and set one free. -That is when the hunt begins. As they run after the bee, others follow along to enjoy the tradition. After setting all of the bees free and loosing them, they actually find the tree.

The adventure was told in great detail and kept me reading on. The story had a good, united town of people that had fun together. In this book, my favorite character would have to be Grampa. Grampa told Mary Ellen that books can be exciting also. Grandpa also liked to have fun and enjoy life.

Once there was a little girl who didn't like to read. Her grandpa got bees out of a tree. She wanted to go out so she went out with her grandpa. He let the bees out and he started to chase the bees and she did too. I recommend this book for people who like bees and people that like to spend time with their grandpa.

Patricia Polacco is, to my mind, one of the finest children's book authors working today. Her mind is endlessly inventive and she manages to convey important truths and vital life lessons without ever once descending into preachiness or condescencion.

Such is the case with "The Bee Tree." Polacco combines her usual rollicking, active illustrations with text that rambles and gamboles about all over the place. Mary Ellen is a little girl who's bored by reading and just wants to be outside running around. Her grandfather, through the course of a shaggy-dog-story-chase about hunting for honey, manages to convey to her the limitless things she can learn via books. The lesson is clear without being pedantic.

Patricia Polacco uses the repetitive genre similar to There's a Bear in the Woods in her book In Enzo's Splendid Garden. Although there are humorous moments, my daughter, age 7, was completely bored. She much more appreciates Polacco's narrative storytelling in books such as Thank You, Mr. Falker.

In Polacco's rollicking, urban version of "The House That Jack Built," the story begins innocuously enough with a tiny bee landing on a tree near an outdoor cafe. A little boy leans over to examines the bee and eventually--of course!--all hell breaks loose, spiraling out of control from this original, innocent action.

Kids will love the rhyming, rhythmic pace of the book, and adults will appreciate the tiny, out-of-the-way details such as the fountain cherub eventually coming down out of her stiff stance at the center of spraying water and helping everyone else at the restaurant gawk at what's going on--not to mention the fact that the original offending bee appears throughout in every single picture.

Polacco has--no surprise here--done it again!

I loved this book! As I was sitting in a children's library reviewing picture books, I tried to keep myself from bursting out in laughter as I read In Enzo's Splendid Gardens. This book is so fun and creative, and filled with a humorous, rhythmic storyline. The pictures are excellent as well, perfectly matching each hilarious episode. This book is a must read for young and old alike!

Polacco's engaging pictures and charming story do delight children. Teachers might, however, expand use of this story to point out the differences between fiction and fact. To the Amish, an anabaptist Pennsylvania German group, headcoverings have religious significance. They are not 'rewards' as indicated in 'Just Plain Fancy.' Readers should be cautioned that this is a 'fanciful' tale.

Polacco's engaging pictures and charming story do delight children. Teachers might, however, expand use of this story to point out the differences between fiction and fact. To Mennonites, an anabaptist Pennsylvania German group, headcoverings have religious significance. They are not 'rewards' as indicated in 'Just Plain Fancy.' Readers should be cautioned that this is a 'fanciful' tale.

This book is a delight for young and old readers alike, especially for those who love peacocks, as we do. The two little Amish sisters in the story find an exotic egg and place it with their hens for safekeeping. The little bird that hatches grows into a beautiful creature, but is much fancier than their plain chickens. The girls worry that his fanciness could lead to trouble in their community, where plain is a way of life. The bird makes an unannounced arrival at a large gathering of the community, much to the despair of the girls, who have secreted him and his beautiful feathers away for fear he will be shunned. One of the elders of the Amish community comforts the girls by explaining that the beauty of God's handiwork can never be shunned and that some things are JUST PLAIN FANCY!

As always, Patricia Polacco's artwork makes the story come alive. Her charming prose makes you smile as the girls decide what to do with this fancy creature while still being true to their upbringing. A wonderful book, especially for the animal lovers in the family.

This is an exciting book about an ever lasting friendship of a horse and rider.This friendship is very special you see because, the first day young Patricia see's the beautiful horse (Penny) she falls in love with her. Though she knows she can't ride her until she's a beter rider. The better Patricia learns to ride the more anxious she is to get on the beautiful horse Penny. Mrs. Mack tries to tell her not to rush, but one day Patricia rides a very difficult horse and falls off. I suggest you read this book and find out what happens to Patricia and her favorite horse(Penny).

Dear Readers,

The author writes about things that deal witheveryday life. Life is sometimes difficult and sometimes easy.Everyone needs to remember that some things are really worth waiting for in life.

We have all been kids at one point in our life. Kids tend to want everything and anything. They need to be taught by good role models how to acquire the things that are most important to them in life. This book gives us insight into how one goes about getting what one wants in life. Nothing is free in life.

Teachers could use this book to teach a lesson on working hard to accomplish life's goals. Children could be asked to brainstorm about the goals they have in mind for their own lives. Children could be asked to interview a relative to find out about a goal that they worked hard to obtain. Another lesson that could be taught with the help of this book is caring for someone other than you. This book showed how animals and people could care for one another. Children enjoy doing activities that involve their own pets or just animals in general. Other topics such as death, sickness, and friendship could be taught with the use of this book. This book has an endless amount of topics that could be discussed and developed through the cooperation of the teacher and students.

This book shows the lines of friendships reach farther than we can possibly know. Some reach through to adulthood. Also, some of our most uncomfortable feelings can be overcome with dedication to another person or creature. Ms. Polacco comes through with another heart-wrenching story from her childhood of a child overcoming a problew in a very positive manner.

This book is written at elementary school age level. Patricia Polacco tells children more about her life, why she writes books, and how she accomplishes the writing process. There are numerous photographs of her and her family so that you can see the real people she writes about in Rotten Red Headed Older Brother and Chicken Sunday. Children who love her stories will be fascinated reading about her "real" life and seeing pictures of her and her home.

This is a book about a boy named Appelemando and he has a special power. When he dreams itcomes out of his head and into the air. This book is good. I like that the auther wrote about a problem with a hard subject. Also the book had a great ending. This book has very good art. So if you like to dream like Appelemando you should get this book. Jeffrey C.

I like this book a lot because the illustrator showed Appelemando's dream very clearly. He also used very colorful pictures in his dreams. The book was pretty funny because his friends kept getting hurt by his dreams. All the people kept getting mad at him because he never did anything good. That is why I would recommend this book to you.