Love That Dog

Author: Sharon Creech
Publication Date: 2008
Type of Book: Poetry Novel

This novel shares the story of a boy named Jack who is a student in Miss Stretchberry's class. The story is written in the form of mini poems. Each poem is written by Jack as an entry in his writers notebook. The only character you hear from in the story is Jack. All of the other characters are mentioned only through Jack's writing. Throughout the book Jack shares his thoughts on various poems his teacher has read in class, poems he has written himself and about his dog Sky.

I really enjoyed reading this book. I had read it before when I was younger and I remembered loving it then as well. I think part of the reason is because I am a big dog person and this story shares the story of Jack's dog Sky. The poem about his dog getting hit by a car is so heartbreaking, but it also shows how writing can be an outlet for people. This book is beneficial for teachers because they can realize the importance of a writers notebook and just how much they can learn about their students from using one continually in the classroom.

I would recommend this story for students in third grade and up. This would be a fantastic book to read during a poetry unit so students can see that writing poetry isn't as scary as some people think. It can also be used to help teach students about using a writers notebooks in the classroom. The teacher can talk about how Jack used his notebook to responded to various poems from class and  to write to his teacher. The author also wrote another book called Hate That Cat that can be used to do a literary comparison. One half of the class could read Love That Dog and the other half could read Hate That Cat and they could discuss the similarities and differences between the two.

Image References:
http://www.amazon.com/Love-That-Dog-Sharon-Creech/dp/0064409597