Drawing From Her Childhood Heroes

Patricia Polacco didn’t write her first children’s book until she was 41. Thirteen years and many books later, winning awards and critical acclaim, Polacco is still writing, reaching out to children with her warm illustrations and from-the-heart stories inspired by her own childhood and the everyday heroes who helped her along “the road map of life.”

Polacco, who will attend the opening of the first-ever retrospective exhibit of her work Saturday at Every Picture Tells a Story, connects past and present in her own tender, funny and powerfully real stories.

The author-illustrator of such books as “Chicken Sunday,” “Pink and Say” and “The Keeping Quilt” celebrates the gifts of reassurance, caring and guidance that the older generation can offer the younger, culled from her own multiethnic background and her experiences as a dyslexic child.

“My mother’s people came from Russia and the Ukraine,” Polacco said. “My father’s people came from Ireland, and in both their backgrounds oral history and storytelling was part of their lives. My best friend was African American and I was raised with his family, too, also glorious storytellers. So my early life was spent sitting at the knees of older people and listening to these wonderful, generous souls.”

Polacco’s latest works, from Philomel Books, are “Mrs. Mack,” about a teacher of horseback riding who helps troubled young people, and “Thank You, Mr. Falker,” Polacco’s tribute to the teacher who recognized her learning disability, got her help and took away her shame.

“He was a glorious person,” Polacco said. “I was secure at home, but it was a horror when I went to school and realized I wasn’t like other children.” She became a class clown in defense, but she couldn’t escape the cruel taunts of one boy, “who teased me for three years running. Words murder just as surely as a gun; you’re not killing the body, you’re killing the spirit.”

To Polacco, mother of a son, 28, and a daughter, 31, “miracles and heroism are found in the most ordinary, tiny things. The heroes in my life pointed up to me what is genuine and good in human behavior--not always by what they said, but by what they lived and how they treated other people.”

Before children’s books took precedence in her life, Polacco, a specialist in Russian and Greek painting and iconographic history, was a museum consultant in icon restoration. She visits classrooms across the country as a storyteller and to work on inner-city projects to promote art and literacy programs.

“To live one’s life with honor and to try to be loving, I think that’s all you can do,” she said.

* “The Art of Patricia Polacco,” Every Picture Tells a Story, 7525 Beverly Blvd., Los Angeles, reception and storytelling, Saturday, 5-8 p.m. Gallery hours: Mondays-Saturdays, 10 a.m.-7 p.m.; Sundays, 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Free.

It’s Not Just for Couch Potatoes: The Museum of Television & Radio’s Seventh Annual International Children’s Television Festival, a monthlong, noncommercial event featuring screenings of 24 children’s television programs from 15 countries, plus workshops in puppetry, music, animation and storytelling, begins Saturday and runs through Dec. 6.

Saturday and Sunday: “The Art of the Puppet,” led by Jim Gamble Puppet Productions on Saturday and puppeteers from KCET’s “The Puzzle Place” on Sunday, plus two days of screenings with a “Making Mischief” theme, from England, Belgium, Malaysia/Philippines/United States, Canada, India/Wales.

Nov. 21-22: “Sounds of Music” workshop, with “Animaniacs” story editor and writer Randy Rogel on Saturday and Bobby Rodriguez and his Jazz Adventure band on Sunday; “Musical Maniacs” screenings each day from Wales, the United States, Denmark and England.

Nov. 28-29: animation workshop, “Ready! Set! Draw!,” with Bruce Royer of Royer Studios on Saturday and Lyndon Barrois of Rhythm & Hues Studios on Sunday; a “Watch What You Wish For” screening package from the U.S., Canada, France, England and Germany/Netherlands/Switzerland.

Dec. 5-6: “Once Upon a Time” storytelling workshop, with We Tell Stories on Saturday and Karen Golden and Ed Landler on Sunday. “Going Places” is the screening theme, with tales of adventure from France, Wales/England, the Czech Republic, Australia and the U.S.

* Seventh Annual International Children’s Television Festival, Museum of Television & Radio, 465 N. Beverly Drive, Beverly Hills, Saturdays and Sundays, noon-5 p.m.; workshops, 12:15 p.m. and 2:45 p.m., followed by screenings, except Dec. 6, when screenings will be shown first. Suggested contribution. (310) 786-1000.