The Great American Road Trip
Destination: Michigan, with Kids
Books:
Thank You, Mr. Falker by Patricia Polacco
and Weird Michigan by Linda S. Godfrey
A GUEST POST By Kristen J. Gough

My youngest insists on nightly story time. My older two girls somehow outgrew this ritual about the time they entered 1st grade—they wanted to read on their own, “No helping, mom!” But not my youngest. She’s content snuggling up next to me and listening each night. No complaints here.
But tonight something interesting happened. As I started to read Patricia Polacco’s Thank you, Mr. Falker, my older two girls wandered in, taking places at either end of the bed; they didn’t even ask to look at the pictures. That’s too bad because Polacco both writes and illustrates her stories, so she knows how to portray the title character, Trisha’s, loneliness as she moves across the country, from Michigan to California, in third grade. The words are almost secondary to her close-up images of Trisha’s face, lined with frustration. Almost. Continue reading Road Trip: Take the Kids to Michigan