Analysis: 

“Thank You, Mr. Falker” is the story of how a young girl named Trisha is
struggling with dyslexia without even realizing it, and her teacher helps her work
through it. Trisha loves to paint and draw, but words just didn’t make sense to her, and
her old teacher didn’t pick up on her disability. As a result, she thought she was stupid.
Trisha and her family move across the country, and Trisha still felt dumb and was
bullied at school, but then she meets Mr. Falker who helps her to read by having her stay
behind every day with him and a reading teacher to help her learn how to read.
 

This book is a door because the illustrations go off the page and are often presented to
us as if we are sitting there with the characters. Even when Trisha is hiding from the
other children after being bullied, we are there with her in the darkness. Perceptually,
the reader sees these images of a little girl being made fun of, and then meeting with her
teacher and learning how to read. From the images alone it is easy to emphasize with the
girl because we see children making fun of her and then we see her crying alone.
Structurally speaking, Mr. Falker and Trisha are displayed as friends because they are
drawn close to each other. This is also the case for Trisha and her grandmother, so to me
this makes Mr. Falker seem like a very important person in the illustrator’s mind.
 

The ideological perspective of this book is basically telling us that we should really look
out for our students as educators, and that it just takes one person to notice something
to make a huge difference. The picture book codes show that Trisha is usually facing left
when she’s more confident in a situation and she faces to the right when she’s more
upset or frustrated. The author’s note is interesting because we find out that Mr. Falker
is a real person to Patricia Polacco, and that she is really Trisha. This is inspiring to see,
because she has come so far from not being able to read to being one of the best
children’s book authors/illustrators around.

Thank You, Mr. Falker

by Patricia Polacco
Philomel Books, $16.99; for ages 4-9
Purchase Thank You Mr. Falker  (#CommissionsEarned)

Sometimes just one teacher can make a difference. That’s how it plays out for Tricia, a girl with
dyslexia and the star of Thank You, Mr. Falker.

The book is set in 1950, but today’s kids can still relate. Tricia wants to read but she can’t.
She’s teased by her classmates, and starts losing faith in herself-until Mr. Falker works with her
and helps her learn to read.
Thank You, Mr. Falker
Patricia Polacco, Author, Polacco, Author Philomel Books $16.99 (40p) ISBN 978-0-399-
23166-7

Fans of Polacco's (Thundercake; Pink and Say) work know well her talent for
weaving her colorful family history throughout her picture books. Here
Polacco shares her childhood triumph over dyslexia and discovery of reading
in an inspiring if slightly formulaic story. Young Trisha is eager to taste the
""sweetness of knowledge"" that her grandfather has always revered (here
symbolized by drizzling honey onto a book and tasting it, which harkens back
to Polacco's earlier The Bee Tree). But when she looks at words and numbers,
everything is a jumble. Trisha endures the cruel taunts of classmates who call
her ""dumb,"" and falls behind in her studies. But finally the encouragement
and efforts of a new fifth grade teacher, Mr. Falker, trigger a monumental
turning point in Trisha's life. She begins to blossom and develop all of her
talents, including reading. Polacco's tale is all the more heartfelt because of
its personal nature. Young readers struggling with learning difficulties will
identify with Trisha's situation and find reassurance in her success. Polacco's
gouache-and-pencil compositions deftly capture the emotional stages--
frustration, pain, elation--of Trisha's journey. Ages 5-up. (Apr.)
An autobiographical tribute to Polacco’s fifth-grade teacher, the first adult to recognize
her learning disability and to help her learn to read. Trisha begins kindergarten with high
hopes, but as the years go by she becomes convinced she is dumb. She can draw well,
but is desperately frustrated by math and reading. In fifth grade, Mr. Falker silences the
children who taunt Trisha, and begins, with a reading teacher, to help her after school. A
thank-you to a teacher who made a difference is always welcome, but this one is
unbearably sentimental. Although the perspective is supposed to be Trisha’s, many
sentences give away the adult viewpoint, e.g., “She didn’t notice that Mr. Falker and
Miss Plessy had tears in their eyes.” The extent to which Trisha limns her own misery
and deifies Mr. Falker (complete with a classroom version of a “He who is without sin
among you” scene) is mawkish. Mr. Falker’s implicit sense of fairness—“Right from the
start, it didn’t seem to matter to Mr. Falker which kids were the cutest. Or the smartest.
Or the best at anything”—is contradicted when Trisha is the object of praise: Mr. Falker,
watching her draw, whispers, “This is brilliant . . . absolutely brilliant. Do you know how
talented you are?” Polacco’s disdain for all the other teachers and the students intrudes
on Trisha’s more profoundly heartbreaking perspective; the book lacks the author’s
usual flair for making personal stories universal. (Picture book. 5-9)