Mrs.Katz and Tush

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Title: Mrs.Katz and Tush 
Genre: Multicultural 
Author: Patricia Polacco 
Major Awards: Young Readers Choice Award 
Age group: 8 - 11 Years old 

Summary: 
Mrs.Katz and Tush is about an older woman, Mrs.Katz, her scrawny cat, and her neighbor a young boy
named, Larnel. Mrs.Katz is a widow who finds herself feeling pretty lonely most of the time. Larnel visits
Mrs.Katz pretty frequently and he helps her care for her new cat “Tush” that he brought to her, During
Larenel’s visits Mrs.Katz provides freshly baked kugels and shares stories about her Jewish heritage and
even touches heavily on the Passover holiday. One day Tush gets out and they find out later down the road
that she was pregnant when she has her kittens. Mrs.Katz is so ecstatic about it because now she is finally
a bu-bee or grandma!  The story ends with Larnel and his family visiting Mrs.Katz grave years down the
road. 
I would like to use this book in my classroom. It is an extremely heart wrenching book and I love how it
displays information about different cultures. In addition, it also displays the idea that even those of different
color can learn from each other and have similar historical and heritage ideas. In addition, the book is a bit
longer but it is an easy read and has beautiful pictures which I feel like my students would really enjoy. 
I feel as if this book would be appropriate to use in 3rd through 6th grade. It does a great job of expressing
different multicultural ideas and teaching a few pieces of information about the Jewish culture which older
students will start to learn about. In addition, the book is a bit longer, which is why I feel that it would be best
to introduce it no earlier than third grade. 
If I were to use this book in my classroom I would first have my students read it and then we would have a
group discussion about the book. Next, I would have them write down all of the historical aspects and ideas
about the Jewish heritage. I would then have them discuss the ideas and see if any of them relate to Mrs.Katz
and what differs from her. 

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