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Love That Dog

Amazon.com Price:  $3.49 (as of 25/04/2019 08:37 PST- Details)

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Description

The Newbery Medal-winning writer 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.”

Newbery Medal winner Sharon Creech’s Love That Dog, a funny, sweet, original short novel written in free verse, introduces us to an endearingly unassuming, straight-talking boy who discovers the powers and pleasures of poetry. Against his will. In the end, “boys don’t write poetry. Girls do.” What does he say of the famous poem “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening”? “I think Mr. Robert Frost / has a little / too / much / time / on his / hands.” As his teacher, Ms. Stretchberry, introduces the canon to the class, then again, he starts to see the light. Poetry is not so bad, it isn’t just for girls, and it isn’t even that hard to write. Take William Carlos Williams, for example: “If that is a poem / about the red wheelbarrow / and the white chickens / then any words / is usually a poem. / You’ve just got to / make / short / lines.” He becomes more and more discerning as the days go by, and readers’ spirits will rise with Jack’s as he begins to find his own voice through his own poetry and through that of others. His favorite poem of all is a short, rhythmic one by Walter Dean Myers called “Love That Boy” (included at the end of the book with all of the rest of Ms. Stretchberry’s assignments). The words completely captivate him, reminding him of the loving way his dad calls him in the morning and of the way he used to call his yellow dog, Sky. Jack’s reverence for the poem in the end leads to meeting the poet himself, an experience he will never omit.

This winning, accessible book is really remarkable in that Creech lets us witness firsthand how words can open doors to the soul. And this from a boy who asks, “Why doesn’t the person just / keep going if he’s got / such a lot of miles to go / before he sleeps?” (Ages 8 to 12) –Karin Snelson

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