Love That Dog (2001)

Plot Summary: Love That Dog is the humorous, endearing story
of second grade boy who discovers a hidden potential and love
for poetry. Jack starts out explaining to Mrs. Stretchberry, his
teacher that boys do not write poetry, and that he has no desire
to do so. He starts out not understanding the importance of
some classic poems she read to them, and begins to imitate
them for fun. Jack is shocked when Mrs. Stretchberry asks him
if she can put one of his poems on the blackboard. At first he
refuses, but she convinces Jack on another poem. As Jack’s
exposure to poetry continues, he begins to write more and more
poems, which are put on the blackboard for the class to see. He
eventually opens up and begins to tell of his love for his dog
Sky, that has passed away. Eventually, Jack allows Mrs.
Stretchberry to put his name on the poem that is on the board.
He feels embarrassed, yet pleased at the compliments of his
classmates. Mrs. Stretchberry asks Jack to write to Mr. Walter
Dean Meyers, one of the poets they read from (and that Jack
imitated), to ask him to come visit their school. Mr. Meyers
wrote a poem titled, “Love That Boy”. Jack hesitantly writes
back, not expecting him to care about the request of a young
schoolboy. To his class’s delight, Mr. Meyers comes to their
school, and the entire class enjoys poetry and brownies with the
author. The book ends with a thank you letter from Jack to Mr.
Meyers, thanking him for the visit, and a copy of his poem,
“Love that Dog”.

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I read this book in its entirety during my lunch break. It's a really easy read, in that it's short and simple, but it's not all that easy in that it's an emotional story about a kid who lost his dog and found the poetry of Walter Dean Myers. The content is made up of the free verse poetry that our protagonist is handing in to his teacher every week, from not wanting to write poetry at all, to being so inspired by a poet that he sends Myers a letter asking him to visit their class. I loved it.
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