[meteorite-list] Falling Into Reading

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:25:36 2004
Message-ID: <200305072140.OAA27448_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://www.ourmidland.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=7670839&BRD=2289&PAG=461&dept_id=472542&rfi=6

Falling Into Reading
Amy Soper
The Midland Daily News (Michigan)
April 10, 2003

Wednesday morning's visitor to Adams Elementary School left some students
with tingling hands.

After hearing stories from author Patricia Polacco, students were given the
chance to touch a small piece of a meteorite which she wrote about in her
first book, "Meteor!" Polacco told students they could make wishes while
touching the piece of fallen star.

"It felt tingly in my hand," said first-grader Nicole Meeks. Meeks said her
favorite Polacco book is about a principal who helps a student quit bullying.

"I like the book about her rotten redheaded older brother," classmate Megan
Bausch said.

Katie Smith, another first grader, said she liked the book Polacco wrote
about how she was taught to read. A fourth student said he liked the breaks
spent clapping and stomping feet between stories Wednesday.

"The rock felt kind of cold when I touched it," said Nathan Fisher.

Polacco began writing children's books when she was 41 years old and has
written 50 in 17 years. She said she grew up around a family of story tellers.

"My mother's people are from Russia and the Ukraine and my dad was from
Ireland," she told the students. "All my life I've been used to hearing
stories, not seeing them. At my house we didn't have a television. We
watched my grandmother. It was better than any TV I ever watched."

Polacco shared that oral tradition with students by telling three stories -
one about a girl whose grandmother gave her a doll to play with and the doll
comes alive, a second about the meteor and a third about a quilt that's been
in her family for years.

The meteor story is based on an event Polacco's mother told her about.

"My mother saw it happen. I do know it was during the month of August at
11:30 p.m. All of a sudden it looked like the sun came out. They ran to the
windows of the house to see what was making noise and it crashed in the
yard," she said. "My mother said the house shook and they saw something
gleaming in the front yard."

The meteorite has become a piece of family and local history in Union City,
where it crashed. People come in bus loads to touch it at the cemetery
where Polacco`s grandmother is buried. The meteorite now has the family name
carved on it, but Polacco carries a piece with her.

"With every legend there's a warning to be careful what you wish for because
it may come true," she told students. "There are three wishes you can't wish
for. You may not wish for money, you can't change other people
and you can't wish for toys or possessions you can purchase with money."
Received on Wed 07 May 2003 05:40:31 PM PDT