Love That Dog

Title: Love That Dog
Author: Sharon Creech
Publisher: HaperCollins, March 1, 2001
Reading Level: 3rd and up
Pages: 86
Genre: Realistic Fiction










Summary:

Jack loves poetry, and that is how he always writes. This book is written as a journal entries by Jack and they are written in short lines... like a poem. Jack writes poetry for his class but he's never sure if it really is poetry. However, his teacher asks him if she can put his work up on the board for everybody to see. At first he says ok, but he doesn't want his name put on it; just in case somebody doesn't like it. As more and more of his poems are put up, he becomes brave. Yes, you can put it up, and if you think it's good, you can put my name on it too. Kids congratulate him and tell him that they like his poems. In his journal entries, Jack also writes about the poems they read in class. One day they read a poem called Love That Boy by Walter Dean Myers. Jack loves it so much that he writes his own secret poem inspried by Walter Dean Myers. His teacher encourages him to write Mr. Walters and ask if he would come visit their school. At frist he didn't want to, but once he did he was scared because he didn't think he would ever come. Then he heard back from Walter Dean Myers and he was coming to his school! He came and Jack loved it. He wrote a thank you letter to him, and he included his poem imspried by Walter Dean Myers, Love That Dog.

My Reaction:

It took me a little bit to get into the flow of the writing. Where it's written in the shorter lines my brain doesn't seem to process it as fluently. However, after a few pages I got the hang of it and I was able to make more sense out of the story. I really liked how he had such an inspiration for poetry and he kept at it even when he wasn't so confident.

Potential Problems:

The only potential problem that I recognized is that Jack writes about his dog, Sky, getting squished by a car. It might be sad for little kids, but overall it's a really good book.

Recommendations:

I think this would be a great story for introducing poetry into an elementary class. It can show students that poetry can be about anything, and it doesn't have to be compicated.