Love That Dog

Author: Sharon Creech
Publisher: HarperCollins
Copyright Date: 1997
Number of Pages: 95
Reading Level: 9-12






Summary
Love That Dog is a book full of poems written by Jack. Jack is a young boy that does not want to write poetry because he believes that its for girls. Throughout the book he is writing poems to his teacher Mrs. Stretchberry about how he responds to the poetry that she shares in class. At first he is very much against writing poetry and he absolutely does not want to share any poetry that he writes with the class, at least not with his name on it. Gradually he comes to accept the pleasures of poetry and he even writes to a poet, Walter Dean Myers, that he comes to love reading. Mr. Myers comes to Jack's school by invitation and Jack is so enthusiastic and excited. Jack writes a letter to Mr. Myers expressing his gratitude that he came, despite how busy he surely is. The end of the book includes the poems that Mrs. Stretchberry shared with her class, and the poems that Jack responded to.

Personal Response
I really enjoyed this book. I never have appreciated poetry very much but this book provides a different viewpoint that I think every student could benefit from.

Potential Problems
In the book Jack writes a poem about how his dog Sky died. This may be too gory for some younger or more sensitive children.

Recommended to...
I would recommend this book to a teacher that is teaching poetry or any student that enjoys, or doesn't enjoy poetry.