This story covers the few days preceding the much-anticipated Midnight Zombie Walk, when Stink and company will take to the streets in the time-honored stiff-armed, stiff-legged fashion. 5-9)Īn all-zombie-all-the-time zombiefest, featuring a bunch of grade-school kids, including protagonist Stink and his happy comrades. Do you know how talented you are?” Polacco’s disdain for all the other teachers and the students intrudes on Trisha’s more profoundly heartbreaking perspective the book lacks the author’s usual flair for making personal stories universal. Falker, watching her draw, whispers, “This is brilliant. Or the best at anything”-is contradicted when Trisha is the object of praise: Mr. Falker’s implicit sense of fairness-“Right from the start, it didn’t seem to matter to Mr. Falker (complete with a classroom version of a “He who is without sin among you” scene) is mawkish. Falker and Miss Plessy had tears in their eyes.” The extent to which Trisha limns her own misery and deifies Mr. Although the perspective is supposed to be Trisha’s, many sentences give away the adult viewpoint, e.g., “She didn’t notice that Mr. A thank-you to a teacher who made a difference is always welcome, but this one is unbearably sentimental. Falker silences the children who taunt Trisha, and begins, with a reading teacher, to help her after school. She can draw well, but is desperately frustrated by math and reading. Trisha begins kindergarten with high hopes, but as the years go by she becomes convinced she is dumb. (Apr.An autobiographical tribute to Polacco’s fifth-grade teacher, the first adult to recognize her learning disability and to help her learn to read. Polacco's gouache-and-pencil compositions deftly capture the emotional stages-frustration, pain, elation-of Trisha's journey. Young readers struggling with learning difficulties will identify with Trisha's situation and find reassurance in her success. Polacco's tale is all the more heartfelt because of its personal nature.

She begins to blossom and develop all of her talents, including reading. Falker, trigger a monumental turning point in Trisha's life. But finally the encouragement and efforts of a new fifth grade teacher, Mr.

Trisha endures the cruel taunts of classmates who call her ''dumb,'' and falls behind in her studies. But when she looks at words and numbers, everything is a jumble.

Young Trisha is eager to taste the ''sweetness of knowledge'' that her grandfather has always revered (here symbolized by drizzling honey onto a book and tasting it, which harkens back to Polacco's earlier The Bee Tree). Here Polacco shares her childhood triumph over dyslexia and discovery of reading in an inspiring if slightly formulaic story. Fans of Polacco's (Thundercake Pink and Say) work know well her talent for weaving her colorful family history throughout her picture books.

Thank you mr falker book cover