mvega's eZine

             In the story “Thank you Mr. Falker” by Patricia Polacco…Patricia had a hard time reading and got bullied. When she was in 1^st grade kids asked “What are you doing”? She said “I’m reading”! They laughed at her. In 5^th grade a new teacher named Mr. Falker helped her. Everyone can use encouragement to face challenges. The main characters are Mr. Falker and Patricia Polaco.           Mr. Falker encouraged Patricia to read. He taught her how. All at once he said “Let’s play a game”. He shouted out letters, she wrote them down. He didn’t stop encouraging Patricia until she learned to learn to read. She was learning to read.           A student name Eric bullied Patricia all the time. One day he followed Patricia into her little hide-out. He pulled her out and said “Dumbbell, dumbbell, maggoty old dumbbell”. Patricia curled in her arms and Mr. Falker came. He stood up for Patricia. He took Eric to the office and said to Patricia “You don’t have to worry about him again.          Somehow in the beginning she felt different about her-self. She felt dumb because she couldn’t read. Also, Patricia got sad when getting bullied. Eric once said to Patricia’s face “Toad”. But now she knows to read Mr. Falker took care of Eric and said to her in the beginning that she wasn’t dumb.          Encouragement can be used to face challenges and people can be different in many ways. I remember when I called myself dumb because I couldn’t read back in kindergarten but, now I do.