Book Dealing with Special Needs Topic: Thank You, Mr. Falker

Title: Thank You, Mr. Falker 
Author and Illustrator:  Patricia Polacco

Genre:  Realistic Fiction    

Major Awards:  1998 Story Book Award, 1999 Gold Award, 1999 Association of Educators of Dyslexic and Learning Disabled Readers, Best Book, 1999  Educators for Social Responsibility Award 
Age Group: 7-10 years old

Trisha comes from a family that values knowledge and reading. They shared that love of reading with her from the time she was 5 years old by pouring honey on a book, and from that moment on Trisha was eager to learn to read. Aside from her love for books and desire to read, Trisha was an incredible artist and loved to draw pictures. Trisha was so eager to read already but clung to the anticipation when her brother  told her that “In first grade, you’ll learn to read." However when Trisha got to the first grade it wasn’t that simple. While other students in Trisha’s class were reading their first readers,  Trisha looked at the page,  and she saw wiggle shapes. Trisha began to feel dumb because she wasn’t reading like all the other students in her class. As she got older, letters and numbers became harder to distinguish and students in her class would make fun of her as a result of it. Around the same time, Trisha’s mom got a new teaching job in California so Trisha's family all moved from Michigan to California. Trisha thought this was an opportunity, that no one in her new school would know she couldn’t read, but still in the new school students called her names and made fun of her to the point she cried. It wasn’t until a new teacher Mr. Falker came to the school that things became different. Everyone thought Mr. Falker was cool. He encouraged Trisha’s art skills and told the students in the class to stop making fun of her. Despite Mr. Falker’s efforts, there was one student who wouldn’t stop tormenting Trisha. It wasn’t until Mr. Falker caught the student bullying Trisha that he took him to the principal’s office. That same day Mr. Falker discovered after playing a game with Trisha on the board that she had seen letters and numbers differently than other students, and he promised her that she was going to read. Mr. Falker kept to his promise, and he and a reading teacher from the school worked with Trisha every day until one special day when the letters were no longer wiggles and she could read a sentence from a book. That day Trisha got back that sweet love of reading that was given to her when she was 5 years old, a love that would change her life forever.          

Thank You, Mr. Falker is a book that makes me cry every single time that I read it, and a book that I think would make an excellent addition to any 2nd-5th-grade classroom library. This book speaks about many topics that are relevant to both students and teachers. It talks about family, bullying, learning disabilities, overcoming adversity, seeking help from others, and the true power and beauty of teaching. The book itself can be given to teachers as a gift and is a true reminder of just how powerful teaching and being there for students can truly be. As a result of this class, Patricia Polacco is now by far one of my all-time favorite authors, and such an incredible person to learn about. Similarly to what we did in class, I would love to do an author study with students on Patricia Polacco and read more of her works in class including Thank You, Mr. Falker. I think this book is a wonderful book to show students because it shows that it’s okay to ask for help and that just because someone may not be on the same level as everyone else does not mean that they are any less capable than everyone else. Trisha believed for a long time that she was “dumb” when in fact she was quite gifted, she just had a learning disability (dyslexia although it is never explicitly mentioned in the book) and needed a little more guidance. I resonate with this story so much because I had experienced a similar situation to the one in the story in my own life. A boy that I was helping tutor for about a year and a half who was struggling with reading came up to me one day and read me an entire page from a book, and I cried too. That moment is the reason I wanted to become a teacher. So quite like Mr. Falker changed Trisha’s life, the little boy I tutored changed mine.