"Love that Dog" by Sharon Creech

I absolutely loved this short novel about Jack! His character made me think of how many young kids feel uneasy about writing poetry and writing in their Language arts classroom. From personal experience I always thought poetry had to look a certain way and that caused anxiety for me because I didn't really know how to write "good" poetry. For example many poets write stanzas or short lines, and that's perhaps why Jack would write down his thoughts in this format. the book offers different ways that people write poetry including poems that rhyme, poems that don't rhyme, poems that look like the object you are describing, poems with lines of repetition etc. I think this book teaches kids and everyone that poetry can be written in all different ways and can be written about ANYTHING.

I appreciated the progress through out the book as Jack builds confidence in himself. At first he wants his teacher to keep his work anonymous. Once he gets positive feedback and realizes that what he is writing is important and is "good" poetry, he starts to come out of his shell a little bit and lets the teacher put his name on his work to show the class. Through different poets the teacher introduced to the class, Jack really started to like one poet and author in particular named Mr. Walter Dean Myers. When Jack took Mr. Walter Dean Myer's style of writing and applied it to his own stories, he was able to create some very interesting poems. I think it's important for teachers to model different examples and show students that poetry can be written in so many different ways. (Which this author did include different poetry at the back of the book that the teacher used throughout the unit--very useful!)

When Jack started writing with the notion that an audience may be listening he had found a sense of purpose. When Jack wrote to Mr. Walter Dean Myers he found another purpose or function of writing. Even though authors or poets might not always give students the response they are looking for, this is an example that shows that sometimes they do respond and it can be so rewarding!

This was a very powerful book and I really really enjoyed reading it. I was so excited for Jack and his class to have Mr. Walter Dean Myers come in and read some of his poetry to the class.