Love That Dog (2001)

Beautiful, heartwarming. One of my favourite children's books. Like Fauntleroy, Jack is just one of those characters who makes you go, "awww!" ( )

Watch a boy learn to love writing poetry. At first he comes across as aloof, retorting that only girls are into poetry. Don't tell anyone I can write, he begs the teacher, Miss Stretchberry. Little by little, poem by poem, Jack's confidence as a poet grows. It is extremely clever how Creech uses well known (and loved) poets to reach into young Jack's mind and pull out confidence. Even though this book is only 80 pages long, every single word is golden.
As an aside, the adult in me immediately clued into Jack's tense changing when writing about his dog, Sky. I had that sense of foreboding that only comes from a loss of innocence. Adulthood taught me to expect the worst. ( )

It surprised everyone, including me, when I cried while reading this book aloud to 5th graders. ( )

I love this book like Jack loves his dog Sky. This is a unique book that can be enjoyed by children and adults alike.
Jack doesn't think he should like poetry, let alone express himself with poetry, but Miss Stretchberry knows just how to guide Jack and build some confidence. The story is as if reading from Jack's writing journal. I happened to read "Hate that Cat" first and it is even better than "Love that Dog." This book would be a great addition to a poetry unit in the upper elementary grades. It also show students that is is okay to experiment with an authors writing style. Although an easy read, too young and I fear they would not appreciate the wit of weaving a story through the one sided conversation with his teacher. Plus it addresses some real life situations we face when owning pets. ( )

Love that Dog is a book that talks about a boy who writes poems about his life almost everyday and one day he gets a yellow dog. The boy talks about his favorite poet Walter Dean Myers and how his poems were inspired by Walter Dean Myers. The book is titled like a poem he wrote called "Love that Boy" and the boy invites Myers to his school to talk about his poems and read some, but he thinks Myers wouldn't answer but he was in town so he visited the school. But before that the boy wrote a poem about how his dog died by a blue car with muddy tires that ran over him called "My Sky" which is the dogs name, but i would highly recommend this book to poem and Language Arts lovers. ( )