Love That Dog! Love That Book! December 9, 2009

Love That Dog by Sharon Creech

Sharon Creech is a terrific writer. No doubt about it. The cover of Love That Dog drew me right in, but when I opened it up and saw that the entire thing was written in free verse, I admit that I was disappointed. I know I should enjoy poetry, but sometimes I just don’t get it, so I shy away from it. But this week I made a major poetry breakthrough! We had Poem in Your Pocket day on Thursday and I loooooved reading fun poetry to classes. Then I read Love That Dog and I did love that dog! So now I’m hip on poetry.

Love That Dog is about a boy named Jack who is writing in a journal for school. He starts out saying that he doesn’t want to write poetry; poetry is for girls. Pretty quickly he writes poems and feels proud when they get put on the bulletin board. Meanwhile he’s reluctant to write about a dog he once had. He eventually writes about his dog and that part gave me actual goosebumps.

What I enjoyed most about the book is that I got an excellent story in such a quick read – I finished it in 20 minutes! Because it is written in prose, every word is valuable. The story never drags. I was pleasantly surprised that I got to know a likeable character and followed him through his school year. It was a fun, thought provoking, emotional read that I think kids will relate to.

Now I want to read Hate The Cat (more about Jack?) and Heartbeat, both my Creech, both written in poetry form.