Poetry Friday: Love That Dog
For this week’s Poetry Friday post, I’m taking a cue from my daughter who came home from school telling me about a poetry book they’d discussed in class. “It’s called Love That Dog, Mom, and it’s all about a boy who hates writing poetry.” She told me rather cryptically. I couldn’t quite make sense of what she was saying until I got the book in hand. Love That Dog by Sharon Creech (Joanna Cotler Books, 2001) is indeed about a boy, Jack, who hates writing poetry and whose teacher, Miss Stretchberry, inspires him to write poems in spite of his initial dislike of them. The story itself is simply told in poetic diary entries by Jack. As Miss Stretchberry introduces well known poems to the class such as W.C. William’s famous wheelbarrow poem and Frost’s “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening,” Jack’s diary entries slowly show his changing attitude towards the reading and writing of poetry; the diary, in fact, is a charting of the creative process of the boy. The poetry unit of Miss Stretchberry ends with a visit by a poet, Walter Dean Myers, whose poem the class has studied and has personally inspired a poem written by Jack.
Love that Dog is wonderfully and cleverly written. It’s an excellent introduction to poetry for elementary school age children. The book also shows more subtly the creative process — what is involved in writing poetry, how one comes to write poems, how one deals with the public presentation of poems, how one edits, how one feels the influence of another poet, etc. This revealing of the boy’s creative process I felt to be quite instructive and illuminating, especially for me as a creative writing teacher.
Poetry Friday this week is hosted by David Elzey at Fomagrams.
October 14th, 2011 at 3:42 am
I LOVE that book!! and there is a sequel: Hate that Cat, also by Sharon Creech. http://www.sharoncreech.com/novels/17.asp. The kids at my school ate them both up.
October 14th, 2011 at 8:40 am
Hi Sally, I’ve seen a number of Sharon Creech books (I think I own one if I am not mistaken), but have not had the time to read it yet. I like how our children are now introducing us to more authors that they enjoy and that we get to share this lovely experience with them. Will look out for this book. I was thinking of devoting a theme on novels about or written in verse – hmm, definitely something to consider.
Oh yeah, just a heads up – the link that you posted in the linkythingy in fomagrams is the one you posted last month (dated september) and not this current one.
October 14th, 2011 at 9:24 am
Thanks, Andi, for the recommendation of the other title by Sharon Creech, and Myra, thanks for the heads up on the link, will go over to Fomagrams and change it now!
October 15th, 2011 at 6:14 am
I love Sharon Creech and this book (and sequel Hate That Cat). I met Sharon via Twitter and she’s so lovely. She even read my post which was a homage to her and Hate That Cat. http://www.pragmaticmom.com/?p=4137
October 15th, 2011 at 7:23 am
[...] on October 14, 2011 at 10:22 am | Reply Sally [...]
October 15th, 2011 at 11:26 am
Love That Dog is a wonderful book. Every child should have a teacher as wise as Miss Stretchberry. I asked Walter Dean Myers how his life had changed since Sharon Creech wrote the book. He laughed and said he enjoys receiving poems from children. He has even mentored a boy and they are jointly publishing a book.
October 15th, 2011 at 11:52 am
I really loved this one too. I used it with my seventh graders a few years ago.
October 18th, 2011 at 3:59 pm
I love the sound of this – and how great that there’s a cat one too
And, Joyce, that’s wonderful.
February 11th, 2012 at 12:39 pm
Love this book! Haven’t read it in several years, though. Due for a re-read. You should check out the sequel, too!