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Summary
Summary
The Newbery Medal-winning author of Walk Two Moons, Sharon Creech, brings readers a story with enormous heart.
Love That Dog shows how one boy named Jack finds his voice with the help of a teacher, a pencil, some yellow paper, and of course, a dog. Written as a series of free-verse poems from Jack's point of view, and with classic poetry included in the back matter, this novel is perfect for kids and teachers, too.
Jack hates poetry. Only girls write it and every time he tries to, his brain feels empty. But his teacher, Miss Stretchberry, won't stop giving her class poetry assignments--and Jack can't avoid them. But then something amazing happens. The more he writes, the more he learns that he does have something to say.
"I guess it does
look like a poem
when you see it
typed up
like that."
Author Notes
Sharon Creech was on born July 29, 1945 in South Euclid, Ohio, a suburb of Cleveland. She was in college when she took literature and writing courses and became intrigued by story-telling. Later, she was a teacher (high school English and writing) in England and in Switzerland.
Her novel Walk Two Moons received in 1995 Newbery Medal; The Wanderer was a 2001 Newbery Honor book and Ruby Holler received the 2002 Carnegie Medal. In 2007, Heartbeat was a finalist in the Junior Division (4th to 6th grades) of the Young Reader's Choice Awards, sponsored by the Pacific Northwest Library Association. She has written over 15 fiction novels for young readers.
She is married to Lyle Rigg, who is the headmaster of The Pennington School in Pennington, New Jersey, and have two grown children, Rob and Karin.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (2)
School Library Journal Review
Gr 4-8-Jack keeps a journal for his teacher, a charming, spare free-verse monologue that begins: "I don't want to/because boys/don't write poetry./Girls do." But his curiosity grows quickly as Miss Stretchberry feeds the class a varied menu of intriguing poems starting with William Carlos Williams's "The Red Wheelbarrow," which confuses Jack at first. Gradually, he begins to see connections between his personal experiences and the poetry of William Blake, Robert Frost, and others, and Creech's compellingly simple plot about love and loss begins to emerge. Jack is timid about the first poems he writes, but with the obvious encouragement and prodding of his masterful teacher, he gains the courage to claim them as his own in the classroom displays. When he is introduced to "Love That Boy" by Walter Dean Myers, he makes an exuberant leap of understanding. "MARCH 14/That was the best best BEST/poem/you read yesterday/by Mr. Walter Dean Myers/the best best BEST/poem/ever./I am sorry/I took the book home/without asking./I only got/one spot/on it./That's why/the page is torn./I tried to get/the spot/out." All the threads of the story are pulled together in Jack's final poem, "Love That Dog (Inspired by Walter Dean Myers)." Creech has created a poignant, funny picture of a child's encounter with the power of poetry. Readers may have a similar experience because all of the selections mentioned in the story are included at the end. This book is a tiny treasure.-Lee Bock, Glenbrook Elementary School, Pulaski, WI (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
"Creech examines the bond between a boy and his dog to create an ideal homage to the power of poetry and those who write it," said PW in a boxed review. Ages 8-12. (Mar.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Excerpts
Excerpts
Love That Dog Jack Room 105 -- Miss Stretchberry September 13 I don't want to because boys don't write poetry. Girls do. September 21 I tried. Can't do it. Brain's empty. September 27 I don't understand the poem about the red wheelbarrow and the white chickens and why so much depends upon them. If that is a poem about the red wheelbarrow and the white chickens then any words can be a poem. You've just got to make short lines. October 4 Do you promise not to read it out loud? Do you promise not to put it on the board? Okay, here it is, but I don't like it. So much depends upon a blue car splattered with mud speeding down the road. October 10 What do you mean' Why does so much depend upon a blue car? You didn't say before that I had to tell why. The wheelbarrow guy didn't tell why. October 17 What was up with the snowy woods poem you read today? Why doesn't the person just keep going if he's got so many miles to go before he sleeps? And why do I have to tell more about the blue car splattered with mud speeding down the road? I don't want to write about that blue car that had miles to go before it slept, so many miles to go in such a hurry. October 24 I am sorry to say I did not really understand the tiger tiger burning bright poem but at least it sounded good in my ears. Here is the blue car with tiger sounds: Blue car, blue car, shining bright in the darkness of the night: who could see you speeding by like a comet in the sky? I could see you in the night, blue car, blue car, shining bright. I could see you speeding by like a comet in the sky. Some of the tiger sounds are still in my ears like drums beat-beat-beating. October 31 Yes you can put the two blue-car poems on the board but only if you don't put my name on them. November 6 They look nice typed up like that on blue paper on a yellow board. (But still don't tell anyone who wrote them, okay?) (And what does anonymous mean? Is it good?) November 9 I don't have any pets so I can't write about one and especially I can't write a POEM about one. November 15 Yes, I used to have a pet. I don't want to write about it. You're going to ask me Why not? Right? November 22 Pretend I still have that pet? Can't I make up a pet' a different one? Like a tiger? Or a hamster? A goldfish? Turtle? Snail? Worm? Flea? November 29 I liked those small poems we read today. When they're small like that you can read a whole bunch in a short time and then in your head are all the pictures of all the small things from all the small poems. I liked how the kitten leaped in the cat poem and how you could see the long head of the horse in the horse poem and especially I liked the dog in the dog poem because that's just how my yellow dog used to lie down, with his tongue all limp and his chin between his paws and how he'd sometimes chomp at a fly and then sleep in his loose skin, just like that poet, Miss Valerie Worth, says, in her small dog poem. December 4 Why do you want to type up what I wrote about reading the small poems? It's not a poem. Is it? I guess you can Love That Dog . Copyright © by Sharon Creech. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved. Available now wherever books are sold. Excerpted from Love That Dog by Sharon Creech All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.