I am drawn to the works of this artist. Each book tells a story from her young life. Patricia Polacco weaves very poignant stories of lessons learned from her childhood. While the illustrations seem large and unartistic, still, I am impressed that each book is rendered with facial expressions that follow the story. Each character is drawn with the emotion that accompanies the feeling.

This is yet another book in which the author focuses on the teachers who made a difference in her life. In this book, Miss Keller is one of those teachers we all may have had in school. This is a teacher who pushes her students to write to the best of what she expects, a story with feeling, meaning and something that grabs the reader to continue finish the work.

This is a teacher who may scare most students because she is very blunt about her expectations, and calls out the student in class to express what is lacking. In turn, this helps others understand what is needed to qualify for an A. And, rumor has it that Miss "Killer Keller" never gives an A to any student.

No matter how hard she tries, Trica cannot write to Ms Keller's standards. Frustrated, Trica is disappointed and takes the admonishments hard. Then, when her beloved neighborhood man, known as "Pop," dies, Trica has the courage and the depth of meaning to write what is needed for an A.

Writing from experience of grief, love and the soul retching feeling of losing a wonderful friend who has impacted on her life, Trica is now able to write from her pain and express the love felt for a man who impacted and helped so many. Cookies were baked, stories were told, and a seat on the steps when a listening ear is needed. Pop listened to Trica's depiction of this teacher as the meanest. Later, he told the story of how Miss Keller mentored his son, and later in life paid his college tuition.

When Miss Keller tells her to bring a thesaurus to school and to look up the overused word "love." Pop was helpful in providing a thesaurus to Trica. Later, when the assignment to interview an older person was given to the class, Pop was the subject of her asssignment. Telling her the story of his son and how hard he worked for Miss Keller and how assignments were picked apart and made to work over and over until he got it right.

Her ability and caring to send Pop's son to college, changed his life. He wrote for many of the biggest newspapers, and received a Pulitzer Prize for writing. This is the story of Miss Keller and her devotion to her class members.

Tragically, Pop died. Through her grief, Trica now wrote with depth of feeling, and she received an A for her personal narrative. ( )

When Tricia is invited to join Miss Keller's writing class, the young girl is both thrilled and terrified. "Killer Keller" has a certain reputation: for being acerbic, demanding, and an incredibly tough grader. It was said that she never gave an A! From the first day, Tricia found herself challenged by this prickly new teacher, and she worked hard at every assignment. No matter how hard she tried however, she just couldn't create the emotional connection that Miss Keller demanded of her. Then her beloved neighbor and elderly friend, Pop Schloss, died, and Tricia found a subject about which she could truly write something memorable and moving...

Patricia Polacco strikes again with An A from Miss Keller, another of her many autobiographical picture-books paying tribute to the teachers who influenced her as a girl! I found myself blinking back tears, as I read the scenes in which Pop died and Tricia struggled with her grief. Miss Keller was clearly an intimidating but also goodhearted teacher, and I appreciated the back story about how she helped Pop Schloss' son improve his writing and go to college. I think there is an important lesson here, in that Tricia simply wasn't able to create the kind of emotionally resonant essay Miss Keller wanted, until she had the kind of subject that truly moved her. Unless the writer feels deeply, he or she cannot communicate a depth of feeling through their words, cannot, as Miss Keller demanded, makes their words "sing." This is a lovely book, one I would recommend to fellow Polacco fans, and to anyone looking for children's stories about being a writer, dealing with a demanding teacher, or coping with the loss of a friend. ( )

Killer Keller, everyone has had a teacher like her once in their lives. By her adopted name one would think she’s a thought one, which may be true. I feel as though she’s pushing the students to think and go outside their comfort zones. This is something I struggle with—writing with emotion. It may be because as a person I’m not one to be full of feelings and emotions to begin with. So I find it hard for me to give the “words wings.” I can relate to Patricia; I lack emotional connection with my writing. This makes me laugh, you should even see my journal. It’s full of facts, things that happened, quotes I relate to and plans on how to accomplish my goals. Miss Keller was a great teacher. I’d read this to students when talking about writing. ( )

I love this book! It is about the procrs of writing an essay. I love that it shows off the objective the book wants from its audience and makes a connection to assignment children usually do in school or at home. It starts out with students writing out a simple essay, then Miss Keller adds onto the essay with using feelings, synonyms of a words, etc. The message in the book is to become a better writer (more of an introduction to expand on someone's writing skills). ( )

In my opinion, this is a good book for students. It tells the personal story of the author in a relatable way that most students in the 5th-6th grade range. Patricia is struggling with her writing and gets "Killer Keller", who she has heard is one of the meanest teachers. This relatable to students because it seems as though the worse the subject the worse the teacher. She is worried she will not give an a because Miss Keller has "never" given an A. Miss Keller isn't pleased by writing until later in the plot when Trisha writes a personal narrative about loss and Miss Keller describes the writing as "giving words wings". The book's plot builds up in a way that makes the reader unsure of what will happen next and shows the main idea that success can happen when we least expect it and from whom you least expect it if we work hard. The illustrations also help to show what is going on during different scenes in the book. This book can be relatable and inspiring to those who have trouble in a specific subject area or with a specific teacher. ( )