When Lightning Comes in a Jar

A fondly remembered family reunion provides the sweeter-than-sweet backdrop for this picture book, as Polacco recalls how she and her cousins eagerly anticipated her Gramma helping them "catch lightning in a jar." The "lightning," of course, eventually comes thanks to some incarcerated insects, but is warmly preceded by all sorts of metaphorical strikes and flashes: Auntie Bertha's trademark meatloaf cooked with a hard-boiled egg in the middle ("like a giant eye"), watermelon-seed-spitting and croquet games (interrupted by "friendly quarrels about bent hoops, crooked wickets and wanting to take reshots"), and, most importantly, oh-so-many stories about an umbrella-loving rattlesnake, a seven-mile walk to a one-room schoolhouse, and a grandfather who "saved souls as a circuit preacher when he wasn't farming."

Polacco's nostalgic pencil and watercolor illustrations chronicle the day's frolics, all the way up to its buggy climax. She then leaves the Greatest Generation behind for an instructive final act, about a new reunion and "a new crop of children": "I'll send them home with full bellies, tired bones and flickering jars in their laps. Their hearts will be overflowing. Full of lightning, put there by folks who loved them even before they were born." (Ages 4 to 8) --Paul Hughes

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All Customer Reviews
Average Customer Review:
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:

Patrica Polacco does it again!, 2008-12-06
As a third grade teacher and a huge Patricia Polacco fan, I highly recommend making this book part of your read aloud collection. It is appropriate for k-3. Even my highest kids were wondering how lightning was going to be put in a jar. Great for modeling text-self connections.


2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

When Lightning Comes in a Jar, 2006-10-12
This book is a very good book that I have read in my class. This book is by a very good writer named Patricia Polacco. This book is fiction. The main characters are Trisha,Lydia, Sandy, and Trisha's dads side of the family.

In the beginning of the story Trisha's family is coming for a family reunion. At the party Trisha meets Lydia and Sandy and they eat gazillions of Jell-os and Meatloafs, that are each a differnt kind that represents each of the Aunts cooking. Then after they eat they have their Annual Basball game, croquet, bag races, Watermelon- seed -spitting contests, and rides on grandpa's horse. They also see how tall everybody is. Next the Aunts tell stories about old time photos. they also get a family photo. Then when night falls grandma tells a poem about lightning bugs and the kids catch fireflies. Then everbody waits till next year to see everybody again.
I would recommend this book to anyone who likes family reunions and some fiction and Non-fiction. I liked this book because it has a lots of things happening and some of it is Non-fiction and fiction mixed togther.


4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

Grandmother creates memories for her grandchildren, 2003-03-22
The theme of this moving story can be summed up in the last two paragraphs. "I'll send them home with full bellies, tired bones and flickering jars in their laps. Their hearts will be overflowing. Full of lightning, put there by folks who loved them even before they were born. Gramma knew this well.
She also knew that someday they would tell their children about all of us, and of the magic nights when we caught lightning in a jar."
Inspired by another of Polacco's real life memories, she writes about a family reunion, after a forty-one-year gap. Her grandmother organizes all the children, teaching them how to catch fireflies. The children put these fireflies in a jar and then there is magic! Childhood memories are the ones that sustain us through our adult life. And often, we will pass these memories on to our own children and grandchildren. This is a precious book that will leave all readers with a warm fuzzy feeling.


6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

Family Traditions and Heartfelt Memories....., 2002-07-25
"Today is the family reunion! I can hardly wait. My dad's side of the family will come soon. It's been ages since I've seen them all..." And as Trisha anxiously awaits the arrival of all her relatives, she remembers the last family reunion at Gramma's house, so many years ago. First all the wonderful food, including about a zillion meatloafs, each made by an auntie from a different recipe, and a gazillion different Jello salads shaking and shimmering on the table. Then there were the games, baseball, croquet, potato sack races, and watermelon spitting contests. Next, all the kids were carefully measured on the side of the milk shed, and Trisha remembers looking at the marks of her gramma and aunties when they were just girls. And last, out came the old photo albums and stories of walking seven miles to school and seeing "the first-ever flying machine in the state of Michigan." And as the day ended and night fell, "small bursts of starlight puffed up out of the grass", and all the children ran to catch lighning in a jar..... Inspired by her own childhood memories, and "the real-life experience of hosting a large reunion after a forty-one year gap between family gatherings", Patricia Polacco's evocative, heartfelt text is full of imagery and magic as she draws the reader into her large and boisterous family for an enchanting day of fun. But it's her expressive artwork that really brings the story to life, and each two-page, water-color and pencil spread is filled with nostalgic, joyous detail. Perfect for youngsters 4-8, When Lightning Comes In A Jar makes a marvelous read aloud the entire family can share and enjoy together, and is a treasured slice of history told with great insight, wisdom, humor, and love. "I'll send them home with full bellies, tired bones and flickering jars in their laps. Their hearts will be overflowing. Full of lighning, put there by folks who loved them even before they were born. Gramma knew this well. She also knew that someday they would tell their children about all of us, and of the magic nights when we caught lightning in a jar."

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