Love That Dog

Since I read this book before any other poetry books I picked out for the poetry week, I was not too sure what to expect. I’m embarrassed to admit it’s been so long since I’ve read a poetry book and I cannot remember the last time I read one! But not even a few pages through Love That Dog, I knew I was going to like it. I have never read a poetry book like this, how the whole entire book are narratives from someone’s diary, and there is continuity between each entry. How creative of the author!
Sharon Creechwrites in a free verse and introduces the audience to a young boy whose teacher is making the class write poetry in their notebook, and it could be about anything. The writes about how he does not know how to write poetry, etc, but while writing things like that, he’s actually writing poetry. The audience can tell that the teacher writes back to him (even though we can’t see) because he writes his responses to the teacher in his poems. His poetry turns out to be awesome as he grows confidence in his writing. I would definitely incorporate this book into my curriculum as a teacher because I know tons of students think they can’t write poetry and have a negative feeling with it, just like the main character in this book. While reading it, they would be able to see that poetry it not all that difficult and boring, and they can see how much fun one could have with it.