Love That Dog

Love That Dog
By: Sharon Creech
Copyright: 2001
Pages: 128
Reading Level: 8-12

"March 1
Yes
you can type up
the yellow dog poem
that looks like a dog
but this time
keep the spaces
exactly
the same
and maybe
it would look
really really good
on yellow paper."

This is a fun book, it is written all in poetry by a young boy, Jack. Jack at first is very much against poetry saying it is only for girls. Then he kind of starts to like poetry, but makes his teacher promise to not read it out loud or put it on the board. He slowly keeps exploring poetry and learns he is kind of good at it. He imitates several other poems, and finds that he really likes it. Soon he allows his teacher to post his on the board, and get embarrassed when all the other children tell him good job. He writes most of his poems about his yellow dog, sky. Who he writes called out to him at the pound saying "Pick me! Pick me!" We then soon find out that his dog was run over by a blue truck, the very same blue truck he writes about at the beginning. The teacher then encourages Jack to write to Mr. Walter Dean Myers. And ask him to come to the class and talk about his poems. But plans to hide his one that it written just like Walter Dean Myers. He comes and the whole class loves it, especially Jack. He ends up mailing him a Thank you note, and including his poem Love That Dog which was inspired by Mr. Walter Dean Myers.

Recommend to: Anyone not excited about poetry, or anyone who is. The book made me want to write constantly in poems.
Problems: He does talk about his Dog dying which might make some children sad.
My Reaction: This was such a fun read, the style is unlike any other book I have ever read. It was like very cute and well done. I really felt like I was reading a child's journal full of poems.