patricknjacob's Full Review: Patricia Polacco - Mrs. Katz and Tush
What to say about a Patricia Polacco book? She uses great dialog, and she fills the gaps between the dialog with glorious word pictures. In addition her illustrations appear as if they are caricatures of people you really know.
The Polacco book entitled Mrs. Katz and Tush is one of a strange friendship. Mrs. Katz is a widow living alone. Larnel is her young neighbor, and Tush is the abandoned kitten that no one wants -- that is, until Larnel convinces Mrs. Katz to take her in.
What happens in the story:
Larnel's mother goes to check on Mrs. Katz everyday after work. She tell Larnel that she visits her because of how lonely Mrs. Katz is since Mr. Katz dies. One day Larnel goes to see Mrs. Katz with an abandoned kitten that is the runt of the litter. Not only is it the runt, it also has no tail, and is the ugliest kitten of the litter. After some initial hesitation, Mrs. Katz agrees to take in the kitten. However, Mrs. Katz makes Larnel agree to help her with the kitten though, because she has never had a cat before.
So begins the friendship that lasts a lifetime. We learn that Mrs. Katz is a Jewish immigrant who came from Poland when she was a young girl. And Larnel talks of how his Grandmother couldn't go places because she was black. Mrs. Katz realizes their connection on a deeper level. Their friendship takes them through happy times, like when Larnel decides to join Mrs. Katz for Passover, and through sad times, like when Tush gets lost out in the rain after Mrs. Katz mistakenly leaves a window open.
Besides being a great story, this book touches on several issues including the elderly, racism, and religious differences. Mrs. Katz and Tush teaches that people may be different than us on the outside, but we are really all the same inside. This is an important lesson for some children (and some adults too). In an age when many popular children's books have to have a super hero in order to keep a child's attention, this book is a refreshing change.
In this special Passover story, Larnel Moore, a young African-American boy, and Mrs. Katz, an elderly Jewish woman, develop an unusual friendship thro...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
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