Love That Dog

by Sharon Creech | Children's Books |
ISBN: 9780060292874 Global Overview for this book
Registered by wingGoryDetailswing of Nashua, New Hampshire USA on 12/3/2018
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1 journaler for this copy...
Journal Entry 1 by wingGoryDetailswing from Nashua, New Hampshire USA on Monday, December 3, 2018
I found this hardcover at a local Salvation Army thrift shop, and nabbed it for another release copy.

The story is told from the viewpoint of Jack, an elementary-school student, who doesn't care for the class assignments about reading and writing poetry - until he starts to learn some surprising (and often funny) things about what poetry is. The story's told in poetry form too, which adds to the fun.

"If that is a poem
about the red wheelbarrow
and the white chickens
then any words
can be a poem.
You've just got to
make
short
lines."

[He's still learning.]

Eventually he does come up with some good ideas, based on personal experiences - his yellow dog, for example, who'd sometimes "chomp at a fly/and then sleep/in his loose skin...". He's embarrassed when the teacher wants to type up his poem, and asks that his name not be put on it, but eventually he gets over that shyness.

I loved his reactions to other poets, too. Regarding Frost's calf-in-the-pasture and snowy-woods poems, he says:

"I think Mr. Robert Frost
has a little
too
much
time
on his
hands."

{snerk!}

Things take a more melancholy turn when he writes about the day his family got the yellow dog from the pound; he finishes the story with:

"And the other dogs
in the cages
get killed dead
if nobody chooses them."

His teacher suggests leaving that bit off, and he agrees "because that's too sad". Things get even sadder farther along - I admit to tearing up a few times - but our young hero gets through it, and finally gets to meet one of his favorite poets in person. Overall, a really touching look at the possibilities of poetry in the classroom. (At the end of the book, the poems referred to in the text are included; William Carlos Williams' "The Red Wheelbarrow", S. C. Rigg's apple-shaped "The Apple, and more.)

Released 5 yrs ago (12/17/2018 UTC) at LFL - Park Social, Ledge St. and Pine St. in Nashua, New Hampshire USA

WILD RELEASE NOTES:

I left this book in the Little Free Library; hope someone enjoys it!

[See other recent releases in NH here.]

*** Released for the 2018 D for December release challenge. ***

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