Love That Dog

Love That Dog
by Sharon Creech

As I started reading this novel, I initially felt a little bit like Jack, the narrator of this story. I'm typically not a lover of poetry, and I often don't "get it." However, after a few pages, I fell in love with Jack and his teacher, and the poetry of this novel.

As a future teacher, I particularly related to a teacher, working with a reluctant student, trying to encourage his poetic writing. I imagine as teachers, we will all run into a boy like Jack who thinks, "I don't want to because boys don't write poetry." But Jack's teacher's patience and kindness provided Jack with space to gradually realize he was an author of poetry. I loved the the author included the poetry mentioned throughout the novel. I think this would be a great book to use with young writers. This book will encourage students not only to explore with writing poetry, but also to widen their reading repertoire to include poetry as well.

The back of the book also included an excerpt from Sharon Creech's new novel "Hate That Cat." This looks like it would be equally enjoyable.