My Rotten Redheaded Older Brother

My Rotten Redheaded Older Brother by Patricia Polacco
1994

     Patricia's older brother could do everything better than her.  He could run the fastest, get the dirtiest, burp the loudest and spit the farthest.  It drove her nuts!  And Richie would push her buttons even more saying "I'm four years older than you...Always have been and always will be."  Her babushka told her one night that if you made a wish on a shooting star it would always come true, so she stayed up until she saw one and wished that she could do something better than her brother.  The following day, Richie and Patricia went to a carnival.  She ran straight for the merry-go-round and decided she would stay and ride it longer than Richie.  She rode it for so long that she fell off the merry-go-round right into some bottles.  When she woke up she was laying in bed surrounded by her family and she found out that her brother had carried her all the way home and called the doctor.  That's when their relationship changed.
     My Rotten Redheaded Older Brother is a warm tale of sibling rivalry and family memories.  I love using this book in the classroom as an introduction to writing personal memoirs.  I read it for the first time to my four year old son and he loved it.  Being an older brother himself, he laughed at Richie always one-upping his little sister and also related to the final show of brotherly love.  When we finished reading the book he said: "that's because an older brother's job is to protect his little sister, you know that?"  So there you go, a great book for the classroom and home.