I read the book, Love That Dog, by Sharon Creech. The book is about a boy named Jack, who starts writing poetry because he is doing a poetry unit in his class at school. He doesn’t like reading or writing poetry because he doesn’t understand it, and he thinks it’s for girls. The book is interesting because it’s written in poetry format, from the perspective of Jack, but Jack and his teacher, Miss Stretchberry, write back and forth to each other about the poems that Jack begins to write. As the story goes on, Jack becomes a better poet and the reader learns more about the love between Jack and his dog.
In the story, Miss Stretchberry asks the class to write a poem. Jack writes a poem about “a blue car, splattered with mud, speeding down the road.” Jack learns more about poetry. As Jack writes poems, at first he is afraid to share them with his classmates, but he eventually becomes more comfortable sharing his thoughts. His
classmates become impressed with his poetry. At the end of the book, Jack explains, in a poem, that “the blue car splattered with mud, speeding down the road,” hit his dog, Sky, and the driver didn’t even stop to make sure that Sky was okay. The reader sees Jack opening up, changing, and sharing his emotions and love for his dog through poetry. You should read this book if you like books about dogs, poetry, and realistic fiction.
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Review by Kevin M.