Love That Dog

Sharon Creech manages to connect several themes and lessons in this simple yet touching book about a boy and his dog. At school Jack just doesn't understand poetry or why he has to learn to write it. In free verse, as the words start out simple yet clear, we hear this reluctance to look for deeper meaning and his lack of confidence in writing anything that will be seen by others. But slowly, as he reaches deeper, Jack finds his voice--full of warmth, love, sadness, and loss. Scott Wolf does a memorable job, finding the right intonations, pacing, and emotion to make Jack's journey very real. As a story alone or a wonderful accompaniment for teaching poetry, this book gets high marks all around. W.L.S. (c) AudioFile 2002, Portland, Maine

Starred review from February 10, 2003

"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.

Starred review from August 1, 2001
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

Copyright 2001 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

August 1, 2001
Gr. 3-6. In simple free verse, Jack tells his teacher that he cares nothing about poetry and sees no point in that snowy woods stuff: "Why doesn't the person just / keep going if he's got / so many miles to go before he sleeps?." But despite himself, he's enraptured by what his teacher is reading: the beat of "Tiger, tiger burning bright" just won't go away. At the same time, he's writing poetry in his own voice about himself, culminating in a breathtaking poem about what happened to his beloved dog. At the end, Creech overdoes Jack's fawning adoration of author Walter Dean Myers, who comes to school at Jack's behest, but that won't stop kids from recognizing both Jack's new exuberance and his earlier uptight mood. Best of all, the story shows how poetry inspires reading and writing with everyday words that make personal music. This is a book for teachers to read aloud and talk about with kids. Some of the poems Jack's teacher reads are appended, including Myers' wonderful "Love That Boy."(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2001, American Library Association.)