Author, Poet, Illustrator update

Okay, so for my Author, Poet, Illustrator assignment, I thought it would be fun to go back to an old childhood favorite, Patricia Polacco. I remember that I have always liked Polacco's stories, because I felt a connection to my own Russian heritage, (even though she's Ukrainian) but I never realized how many goats were actually included in the stories. Okay, so goats are common pets in Russia, but it seems odd when considering that the majority of Polacco's stories take place in Michigan and are often times based off her own childhood memories. I guess my favorite story is Babushka Baba Yaga, because it shows a completely new dimension of a fearsome childhood fear, to think that Baba Yaga has the ability to show kindness and motherly love. There seems to be a repeating theme that involves the value of tradition and respect for the roots of ones' heritage. Friendship is also a very prevelant theme in Polacco's stories.
I am finding tons of resources on Polacco, with tons of video interviews, I would recommend these three sites in particular:
http://comminforutgers.edu/professional-development/childlit/Feminist/polacco.html - this cite goes into things such as theme and comes from the perspective of a professional teacherhttp://www.patriciapolacco.com/ -this cite is a link to Polacco's Facebok page. This cite discusses Polacco's latest projects, News updates and biographical information. http://www.readingrockets.org/books/interviews/polacco this is an interesting cite to glance over, it has all the biography info, but not as good as Polacco's facebook cite. The reason I included this cite is because it has video interviews with Polacco about her books as she talks about theme and characters. http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view.asp?id=996 This is the cite every novice teacher looks for, the lesson plan page. This cite has some really cool lesson plan ideas for incorporating Patricia Polacco books into the classroom, best of all, you can get your own ideas for author/Illustrator studies for a variety of different authors, illustrators, or poets.

Check out Patricia Polacco; she's pretty traditional in her art, but I think that kids will still enjoy her books, and they provide great opportunities to talk to kids about tough topics.