Plot Summary

 Written and illustrated by Patricia Polacco, The Lemonade Club tells the story of best friends Traci and Marilyn, two young girls having an amazing year together in the fifth grade. However, Traci and Marilyn’s worlds are both turned upside down when Marilyn begins to drastically lose weight and becomes tired all the time. She learns she has leukemia- and a tough road ahead. Thinking that all is lost, Marilyn becomes more and more distraught with each passing day. But with the help of her friends, family, and her wonderful fifth-grade teacher, Miss Wichelman, Marilyn regains her strength and learns to overcome even the largest of obstacles. And when Miss Wichelman learns that she has a challenge of her own (fighting breast cancer), Marilyn’s strength provides her the inspiration she needs to fight back.

Patricia Polacco is the author and illustrator for over forty books for young readers including Pink and Say, My Ol' Man, Chicken Sunday, My Rotten Redheaded Older Brother, Tikvah Means Hope and In Enzo's Splendid Garden. Polacco has received many awards and honors for her writing including the International Reading Association Award for Rechenka's Eggs, the Sydney Taylor Book Award for The Keeping Quilt, and the Children's Literature and Social Responsibility Award for the overall excellence of her work. Her books stress the significance of family traditions and memories by emphasizing important qualities such as the courage, humor and humanity of ordinary people. Her characters find adventure and magic in everyday occurrences and Polacco often turns to real-life inspiration for her books (ie: The Lemonade Club). Patricia Polacco’s daughter, Traci, did have a best friend named Marilyn and a wonderful fifth grade teacher named Miss Wichelman, and they both indeed had cancer. The inspiration Polacco received for writing this non-fiction picture book stemmed from the strong women in her life who had succeeded in surviving horrific events with the help of courage, faith, and most importantly, friendship. The plot of The Lemonade Club excels through its introduction of a difficult subject to a young age group (primarily 5-8 year old children); however I would personally recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a heart-wrenching story filled with overwhelming obstacles and triumphant endings.

Textual Elements

The Lemonade Club deals with many important issues in today’s society that almost any child can either relate to or learn from. It is Polacco’s writing style that makes Traci and Marilyn’s friendship appear so relatable, and it is her detailed descriptions about leukemia that makes such a complicated illness more comprehensible for young children. One example of Polacco’s ability to relate subjects of cancer and social relevancy appears as Miss Wichelman tells Traci and Marilyn that she is fighting breast cancer. Miss Wichleman explains, “…I’m almost finished with chemo’…. ‘Will that get rid of it?’ Traci asked. ‘No, I’ll have to have surgery eventually,’ Miss Wichelman answered. ‘So…so you’re going to be flat chested like us, right?’ Traci chirped… ‘Fashion models are flat chested, and they are considered the most beautiful women on earth!’ Marilyn chimed in. ‘Except for brides!’ said Traci” (Polacco, 29).

Polacco also uses common literary elements in The Lemonade Club such as motifs, metaphors, conflicts, solutions, symbolism, point of view, and repetition in order to make her story more compelling. She uses Miss Wichelman as the “deliverer” of popular themes such as: “If life hands you a lemon or two today-and you all know how sour lemons are-just add water and sugar and what do you have? Lemonade!” (Polacco, 6). Miss Wichelman emphasizes the importance of always finding ways to make the best of situations, never letting anything (even cancer) break your spirit, and that “if you can dream it, you can BE it” (Polacco, 33). Polacco also displays a significant amount of foreshadowing for Miss Wichelman through her prolonged reaction to Marilyn's cancer news at the beginning of the book. Similarly, one of the most wonderful qualities of The Lemonade Club is the narrator’s consistent and transitioning voice throughout the story. Polacco finds ways of ensuring that every character’s thoughts and opinions are heard. For example, Miss Wichelman learns to inspire those around her while maintaining the strength to fight cancer; Marilyn learns how to still be a child while coping with her struggle with leukemia; and Traci remains the protective best friend that continues to motivate Marilyn through her struggles. Traci and Marilyn’s distress is made apparent when “One day, shortly after her chemo began, Traci walked in while Marilyn was brushing her hair. She was staring at her hairbrush- it was full of strands and clumps of her beautiful hair! ‘My hair…it’s falling out!’ Marilyn cried…From that day on, some days were good and some weren’t for Marilyn” (Polacco, 18).

Artistic Elements 

Polacco’s illustrations consist primarily of naïve art with a childlike simplicity. She displays an adherence to frontal posture and backgrounds are provided simply with a lack of three dimensional perspectives. In such a real story with real situations, Polacco succeeds at lightening the darker mood of the book through exaggerations and distorted realities in her illustrations. The Lemonade Club contains many full-page bleeds and double page spreads where the images spill over from page to page and essentially have no limitations. By allowing the illustrations to have no constrictions, Polacco gives her readers the opportunity to think “outside of the box.” The medium used in the illustrations of The Lemonade Club appears to be pencil sketches consisting primarily of line strokes. Line, one of the most expressive elements of artists, pulls the eye toward a particular direction and ultimately focuses the viewer to specific places throughout the illustration. In The Lemonade Club, Polacco uses lines to portray the childlike perspective of the story, never becoming too technical or too focused on one particular image. Lastly, it is Polacco’s color choices that really caught my attention and made the story so relatable. Polacco successfully employs dark pastels in her illustrations as symbolism for childhood struggles. For example, on pages 13 and 14, we watch Miss Wichelman’s fifth grade class mourn the news of Marilyn’s cancer in a classroom filled with dark green walls and gloomy brown furniture. The student’s uniforms are also murky plaid-looking pastels, and everything about the scene on that day displays a more dark and dismal mood than that of a normally vibrant, colorful fifth grade classroom.

Lastly, the book-cover illustration of The Lemonade Club displays two girls smiling and holding hands while wearing colorful scarves and hats. Both girls appear to be bald, and from first glance it easy to assume that they are equally sick with cancer. However, on the back-cover illustration of the book, one girl appears by herself with a frowning face, a bald head, and the colorful scarf in her hand. This image is the only one out of the entire story where Marilyn and Traci do not appear on a page together; and if the reader were to turn to the back-cover before reading the book, it would again be easy to assume that either one of the girls passed away, or only one of them really has cancer. While the images portrayed on the covers of The Lemonade Club may lure curious readers in, I think that the back-cover of a bald little girl standing alone with a saddened face may turn off some younger audiences and their parents because there is nothing uplifting about the illustration. Children (as well as many adults) are drawn to books with smiling faces, bright color choices, and interesting cover-pages/dust jackets. However, in the end I still believe that this book is appropriate and should be encouraged for any age group.

(Back-Cover)

Analysis and Critique

 At first glance, The Lemonade Club appears to have very little depth and ambiguity, considering the overall theme of the book is immediately displayed in the title. However, within the actual text and illustrations of this picture book, there is much more profundity than what is displayed merely in the title and front-cover introduction. The text and illustrations are sequentially effective, providing detailed visuals of every character and setting in the story. For example, the reader is made aware from the preface of the book that Miss Wichelman is a teacher that every fifth grader loves; however, it is the descriptive text that helps the reader understand why she is so respected in her classroom. Polacco writes that, “Miss Wichelman made their classroom seem almost like home. She put a lamp on her desk, and she framed almost everyone’s drawings and hung them on the walls. She had a rug right up in front of the room next to her desk, where she read to her class from a big old rocking chair” (Polacco, 2). Using thorough imagery and detailed illustrations, Polacco successfully creates a story that every person can relate to, even if they have not necessarily experienced the same struggles and hardships as the characters in this book.

Patricia Polacco’s books have a profound way of connecting her unique perspective, voice, style, and true-life experiences with those of the reader. While such concepts may appear quite vague and obvious, the clichés displayed in Polacco’s writing provide all generations with important life-lessons and opportunities for reflection without feeling overwhelmed by a lengthy, complicated storyline. Polacco states that, “What I'm doing in my writing is to call even adults back to the time when they believed in the what-ifs. To me, that's a wonderful place to be” (http://www.childrenslit.com/childrenslit/mai_polacco_patricia.html). The Lemonade Club is also emotionally and logically appealing because it allows readers of every age to reflect on a teacher in their lives who, as Polacco explains, “made every kid in the classroom believe that he or she could be anything they wanted to be” (Polacco, 3). The Lemonade Club is a constant reminder of how important it is to be thankful for everything positive in one’s life, and to always remain strong and hopeful even when situations appear at their worst.

 For more information about Patricia Polacco and The Lemonade Club, visit http://www.patriciapolacco.com/

Citation

 Polacco, Patricia. The Lemonade Club. New York: Philomel Books, 2007. Print.

"Meet Authors and Illustrators." Interview by Susie Wilde. Childrens Literature. 30 Jan. 04. Web. 21 Nov. 09. <http://www.childrenslit.com/childrenslit/mai_polacco_patricia.html>.

References

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