New Patricia Polacco Book! Miss Keller and the Thesaurus

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Affiliate Links If you’ve been a fan of Patricia Polacco like me, you’ll know that she loves to share the stories of marvelous teachers, many of which were her own growing up. Her newest book, An A from Miss Keller, is a story about the teacher who transformed Patricia into a writer. It’s a beautiful, bittersweet story that you can use at home and in the classroom to teach about friendship and writing.

New Patricia Polacco Book! Miss Keller and the Thesaurus

An A from Miss Keller picture book book review

Miss Keller’s writing class is tough. Miss Keller (“Killer Keller”) never gives As . The masterpiece Trisha turns in isn’t a masterpiece to Miss Keller. In fact, after Trisha uses the word “love” too often, Miss Keller introduces her and the rest of the class to the thesaurus.

Trisha shares her frustrations with her friend, her elderly neighbor she calls Pop. Pop is a good listener. He gives Trisha his own thesaurus to help with her writing.

Then Pop dies.

Trisha writes and writes about Pop.

And she gives her words wings.

 

. . .

Teachers, like me you probably can totally relate to this story. Often our growing writers overuse words that tell and don’t show until they know better.

Here are two printable to get your students thinking outside the box for the words “fun” and “love.”

I hope it inspires lots of thesaurus use. Have your students make their own adjective word lists in their writer’s notebooks.

Adjectives for FUN –  FREE PRINTABLE

free printable other ways to say the word FUN

Adjectives for LOVE –  FREE PRINTABLE

adjectives for the word LOVE

Do you need a good thesaurus? Here’s one of my favorites.

 Webster's Thesaurus
Webster’s New World Roget’s A – Z Thesaurus

You can always use an online thesaurus like the three below:

Thesaurus.com

Merriam-Webster Thesaurus

Collins Dictionary Thesaurus

However, I don’t recommend the Visual Thesaurus (GraphWords.com) because some searches (including the word love) can lead to other words that aren’t appropriate for children.

All Patricia Polacco’s Teachers Picture Books

Thank You, Mr. Falker
Mr. Lincoln’s Way
The Junkyard Wonders (MY FAVORITE!)
The Art of Miss Chew
Mr. Wayne’s Masterpiece
An A from Miss Keller

New Patricia Polacco Book! Miss Keller and the Thesaurus

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