Love That Dog

Author: Sharon Creech

Publishing:  HarperCollins Publishers

Number of Pages: Paperback—86 pages

Genre:  Poetry

Reading Level:  Ages 9-12

Summary:  In this book a boy named Jack writes to his teacher in poetry form and as if it were a journal about how he feels about the class and he also writes his own poems.  It starts off with Jack who is in class and he does not want to write poetry.  He thinks that poetry is for girls, not boys.  He then observes that all poetry really is, is thoughts/words that are put into short lines.  Throughout the book he talks about different poems that they read in class.  For example, he says how he does not understand the Red Wheelbarrow poem.  He also goes on about how he got a new dog and he named him Sky.  Throughout the book the teacher puts Jack’s poems on display on the board—at first he is afraid people won’t think they are poems so he does not want his name on them, but eventually he does want his name on them.  He also tells about his very favorite poem by Mr. Walter Dean Meyers, called “Love That Boy.”  Jack writes a poem “inspired by Walter Dean Meyers” and he also sends a letter asking if he can come visit him and his school.  A couple days later, when Jack and Sky are playing outside, a blue car hits Sky and he dies, this makes Jack really sad and he writes a poem about it.  Then, Jack finds out that Walter Dean Meyers is coming to visit.  Jack has the best day ever when Mr. Meyers comes to the school.  After he leaves Jack sends him a letter thanking him for coming and he also sends the poem that he wrote that was inspired by him: “Love That Dog,” and that’s how it ends.

My Reaction to the Book:  I thought that this was an okay book.  Honestly, my favorite thing about it was that it went so fast reading it—it’s a very easy read for anyone.  It is a creative book and is interesting at times but it definitely is not my favorite.

Potential Problems:  The only problem that I could see in this book is the fact that the boy’s dog dies after he is hit by a car.

Recommendations:  I don’t think I could recommend this book to anyone because it just is not that good—it might be good for children who are learning poetry, but other than that I think that it seems pretty useless.