Polacco, Patricia. (2013). Gifts of the Heart. New York: Penguin Group Inc.

This Book is another timeless piece by Patricia Polacco. The story begins explaining that two children live on a farm with their grandpa and mother. Their grandma recently died, and they were being forced financially to sell the farm soon. Since their grandma died and their mother got a new job, the Agency was sending a lady to help out with the home. Richie (the boy) was very negative towards having some strange lady take over his grandma's jobs in the house and in their lives. This Christmas story teaches lessons through Richie and his sister as they learn from Kay Lamity the importance of gifts from the heart instead of physical presents. Through lack of faith in Kay and Santa, both children go through a journey of learning to have faith in things unseen. They also come to love Kay. In the end, the children find the perfect, meaningful gift from the heart to give to their mother, grandpa, and even Kay. They make corn husk angels made from the cornstalks grown on the farm so that they will always have a piece of the farm.

The language in this book may be difficult for young and even some older students to read independently because it uses a lot of slang such as, "young'uns," "ain't," and "yer." This book is also a longer picture book. Therefore, I would suggest this book for a class read-aloud during Christmastime. 

The following is a link to a book trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_jSLYPTrrk

With such great other books by Patricia Polacco it would be fun for students to do a unit on her. She has a lot of Christmas books, so it might be good to do it during Christmastime. The following is a link to her website, which contains contact information: http://www.patriciapolacco.com/ I think it would be fun for the children to contact the author.

The following is a link to a video of Patricia Polacco speaking about her books: http://www.readingrockets.org/books/interviews/polacco

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