Love That Dog

Title: Love That Dog                                                 

Author: Sharon Creech

Illustrator: Alicia Mikles

Genre: Realistic Fiction

Subgenre: Novel

Theme: Realistic Fiction

Primary Characters: Jack

Secondary Characters: teacher,dog

Awards: Newbery Medal

Date of Publication: 2001

Publishing Company: Scholastic Inc.

Summary of the book: This is a story written in poetry form, which the young boy Jack does not like to write. He thinks poetry is weird and only for girls. His teacher will not let him escape writing poetry because she keeps giving him assignments that require him to read and write poetry. After he writes some poetry his teacher wants to share it with the class, but he wants to be hidden about it. When he sees his own poetry displayed by the way the teacher posts his work with letters on yellow paper and typed up neatly, he likes what he sees.  He reads other poetry by poets that he really likes and begins to think that poetry is not so bad.

How can the book be used with students in the classroom: This would be a great group activity for the class to learn about how poetry is written. I would have the class read the novel and discuss questions about the book. I would have them get in there groups and identify the poetic elements in the novel. I would have the class to write a poem about a poem. This book brings out great qualities in a young boy that thought he could not write poetry and realized that he could.