The Lemonade Club

The Lemonade Club was written and illustrated by Patricia Polacco. The genre of the book is realistic fiction. The theme of the book is to make the best of every situation. The primary and secondary characters of the book are Traci, Marilyn, and Ms. Wichelman. The book was published in 2007 by Penguin Group.

This book is about two girls, Traci and Marilyn, who are best friends in Ms. Wichelman's class. Ms. Wichelman always kept a bowl of lemons on her desk to remind students that when life gives you lemons, add water and sugar to make lemonade. Marilyn is an overweight girl. Once she begins to lose weight, she collapses in the garden with Traci. Traci is worried that this happened because Marilyn is teased so much by other kids at school. Once Marilyn goes to the doctor, she finds she has leukemia. Ms. Wichelman tells the other classmates that Marilyn is very sick and she will miss school for a few weeks. While Marilyn is fighting her cancer, Traci and their teacher often come to visit her at her home. Marilyn feels like no one else understands what she is going through. Ms. Wichelman says that she does understand and asks the two girls to be in her wedding and wear yellow dresses. When Marilyn is finally able to return to school, she has no hair because of her treatments. When she goes in she finds that her whole class is wearing hats because they too have shaved their heads, even the teacher. Traci, Marilyn, and Ms. Wichelman create the Lemonade Club. When everyone's hair begins to grow back, Ms. Wichelman remains bald. At a meeting with the Lemonade Club, the two friends discover that their teacher has has breast cancer and her hair will still not grow.  Ms. Wichelman is able to beat breast cancer and when she marries, Marilyn and Traci are there in the yellow dresses.


I would have this book in my class in case a student in our room becomes sick with cancer, or some other serious medical problem. When young children are able to relate, through books, with other children their age going through bad problems they are much more understanding. This book could also be used if a student came to me because they had a friend to family member dealing with a situation like this. Patricia Polacco's books are wonderful to have in case you need to help students relate with a serious problem