Meeting Patricia Polacco

I follow Patricia Polacco and a couple other authors on Facebook. I always see Patricia doing school and library visits and hoped one day she would come to Wisconsin. As I was browsing the area library websites, I saw that she indeed was coming to Wisconsin and to Menasha library. I re-arranged my work schedule so I could see her....

Then we got an ice storm....

Luckily, she is flexible and was able to move her visit to the next day and push the visits she had scheduled in Madison to Monday. Phew.

Since she was signing books before her presentation, I got there super early, expecting a crowd. There was no line when I got there and was able to get a couple books signed for myself. I wanted to get one signed for Heather but I forgot to ask ahead of time and the book already had my last name in it from my teaching days.

For those non-teacher friends, Patricia Polacco writes and illustrates children's books. I discovered her in college and loved her books ever since. The illustrations are amazing.

Patricia Polacco had a really relaxed fireside chat with us. She talked about her background for a bit (Russian Ukrainian/Irish) but really left the direction of the chat to the audience. Since it was really geared towards children, she had all the little kids sit on the floor in front of her.

She talked about how she became a writer and how she went to New York to find a publishing house with her portfolio. All of her stories were sold to one publishing house or another while on that trip. I guess petting those horses paid off.

We learned a bit of her writing and publishing process... from the rocking chair brainstorming to the pounding out the story on an electric typewriter and blowing up the illustrations at Office Max Patricia Polacco is an old school writer. She has it takes about two years for her to publish a book but she is really only involved for the first six months. The rest has to do with editing, printing, and shipping the completed books over here from Hong Kong literally on the slow book from China.

I knew she had a dyslexia which is the basis of Thank You, Mr. Falker but not to what extent or the other "dys-abilities" she encountered. It was fascinating to learn she reads the blank space around words instead of the word itself which why reading, number, and all the stuff is so difficult. If it wasn't for Mr. Falker, she said she probably wouldn't be here today. So I am sure many teachers and students are really thankful for Mr. Falker.

She also told us the story about meteor that landed in her backyard. We even got to see the meteor.

The hour spent listening to Patrica Polacco was amazing. It was a great way to start of my weekend. If you ever get a chance to hear one of your favorite authors, do it. You learn some much about them and their craft. I wonder who else I will meet this year....