By Barbara Mariconda

Illustrated by Sherry Rogers

 Barbara Mariconda is one of those people who
has done it all! An educator (K-6), a mentor
teacher, an adjunct professor of Children’s
Literature and Process Writing, Barbara has also
written a wide variety of musicals, songs, and
books. She has worked with Children’s Television
Workshop and Cherry Lane Music on the creative
staff of the Sesame Street Music Magazine. In
Packy the Packrat’s mother has had enough!
addition to writing workbooks and beginning By Barbara Mariconda
It’s time that he sorts through his ever-growing
readers, her middle grade novel, Turn the Cup
Around, was nominated for an Edgar Allan Poe
Illustrated by Sherry Rogers
collection of trinkets and puts them away. Told in
Award for best children’s mystery. She has also
rhyme, the text leads the reader to participate in
published numerous professional books for
the sorting process by categorizing Packy’s piles
teachers, frequently speaks on the topic of writing
of things according to like characteristics and
for and with children, and provides professional
attributes. The reader response is worked into
development for teachers at seminars across
the rhyme, building a sense of anticipation. The
the country. She is a partner in the educational
illustrations include a humorous subplot about
seminar/consulting firm, Empowering Writers,
Packy’s sister, who enjoys pilfering some of his
and is a member of SCBWI. Barbara understands
things for her own enjoyment. Children will relate
that sorting and categorizing, recognized as a
to the idea of having a collection of favorite objects
math and science skill, also powerfully relates to
and the satisfaction that comes from examining and
writing. In order to write in an organized fashion,
admiring these collectibles. The story promotes and
to group like details with broader main ideas, to
reinforces analogous thinking—a critical thinking
recognize the ways in which main ideas of writing
skill in math, science, and life.
may overlap and therefore encourage redundancy,
It’s so much more than a picture book . . . this book it all comes down to the writer’s ability to think
is specifically designed to be both a fun-to-read critically and sort things out. Barbara’s huge
story and a launch pad for discussions and learning. collections of sea glass, pottery shards, glass
Whether read at home or in a classroom, we paperweights, nutcrackers, wine bottle corks, and
encourage adults to do the activities with the young cowboy boots, all artfully sorted and arranged,
children in their lives. Free online resources and served as the inspiration for this book.
support at www.ArbordalePublishing.com include:
Sherry Rogers spent twelve years as a corporate
• For Creative Minds as seen in the book
graphic designer and artist before “leaving it all
(in English & Spanish):
behind” for the freelance world. In addition to
° Sorting Activity
illustrating Sort it Out! Sherry has illustrated
° Scientists sort things too—with graph
Kersplatypus, Burro’s Tortillas and If You Were
° Sorting Cards
a Parrot for Arbordale. Her first book, Counting
° Writing Connection
Little Geckos was published in the summer of
• Teaching Activities:
2005. Sherry, her husband and two children live in
° Reading Questions ° Mathematics
Northern California.
° Language Arts ° Geography
° Science ° Coloring Pages
• Interactive Quizzes: Reading Comprehension,
For Creative Minds, and Math Word Problems
• English and Spanish Audiobooks
• Related Websites
• Aligned to State Standards (searchable database)
• Accelerated Reader and Reading Counts! Quizzes
• Lexile and Fountas & Pinnell Reading Levels
eBooks with Auto-Flip, Auto-Read, and selectable For Tom Lynch who helps me sort out and stand in the mysteries of life, and Mary Santilli
English and Spanish text and audio available for who taught me that everything is, in some way, about math and science!—BM
purchase online. For my Grandma Askew who in my eyes was as perfect as a human can be and who I
Thanks to Mary Santilli, Presidential Award Recipient Barbara Mariconda Sherry Rogers cherished and miss so much—SR
for Elementary Mathematics (CT 1991) for verifying
the accuracy of the information in this book.
 Pack rat collected a whole bag of stuff.
His mother said, “Packy, enough is enough!
Empty that stuff you’ve collected today!
Then sort it all out and put it away!”
A turtle, a locket, a marble, a book,
an acorn, a needle are all things that he took!
An egg, an umbrella, a brush, and some thread
are just some of the things he spilled out on his bed!
A kettle, a pinecone, some yarn, and a clover
are more of the things Packy had to look over.
A string bean and cherry were in his collection,
with pieces of sandpaper for his inspection!
But before he could put all these treasures away,
he grouped them with things that they’re like in some way!
He sorted them this way and that way and then,
he looked them all over and sorted again!
The turtle, the clover, the skinny string bean,
he placed in a pile made of things that are . . .
The turtle, the egg, and the acorn that fell,
these are all things with a hard outer . . .
 For Creative Minds
The For Creative Minds educational section may be photocopied or printed from our website by the owner of this Scientists sort things into groups too
book for educational, non-commercial uses. Cross-curricular teaching activities, interactive quizzes, and more are
The first question that scientists ask is whether something is “living/once-living” or “non-
available online. Go to www.ArbordalePublishing.com and click on the book’s cover to explore all the links.
living.” If it is living, it can be sorted into different groups called “kingdoms,” which include
plants or animals among others. Can you sort Packy’s things into either non-living, plant,
Hidden Picture or animal?
How many items can you find hidden in the first page of the story: alphabet blocks, • Look at the piles and guess which group has the most.
dominoes, buttons, pencils, paper clips, thimble, tinker-toy wheels, buttons, bottle cap, and • Then count how many are in each group.
marbles. What are some of the other items you see in the book that Packy has collected? • Color a box for each item in the appropriate section of the copied/downloaded graph.
• Which one has the most? Did you guess correctly? Which has the least?

Sorting, Categorizing, and Classifying

People sort collections in different ways all the time. Laundry gets sorted into light and dark
clothes or into cotton versus permanent press. This is called “sorting by attributes.” An
attribute is a characteristic shared by the items you group together.
Copy or print from our website and cut out “Packy’s Sorting Cards.” See how many different
10
ways you can sort them. Cards may be copied using a reduction and/or an enlargement in
order to provide for another aspect of size sorting. 9
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Take a survey by asking family members, friends, and classmates
which collection is their favorite. List the groups in order from most Non-living Animal Plant
favorite to least favorite.
 pinecone bean sandpaper kettle
Packy’s Sorting Cards

Packy’s Sorting Cards

acorn book needle umbrella

marble clover cherry egg

tooth brush locket yarn thread

 Writing Connection: If you enjoy this book,
Authors use words to paint pictures! The words they choose help readers visualize and imagine look for other Arbordale books that may also be of interest:
the important things they are writing about. One way authors do this is to refer to important
things in a variety of ways. They think about the characteristics of characters, settings, and objects
and use these characteristics in their description. Let’s look at some of the important objects
Packy sorted and see if we can name them in a number of ways!
Example—Marble: small glass orb, miniature crystal ball, small round colorful globe
Can you think of another interesting way to say “marble”?
Try to use “word referents” for the following important objects Packy collected. One idea for each
has been provided for you.
Clover lucky four-leafed plant
Turtle armored creature
Acorn squirrel snack
Cherry ice cream sundae topper
Now that you’ve got the hang of it, try this skill when you write or tell a story!

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