Love That Dog

I was very hesitant about this book before I started reading it. I am hesitant about anything that has to do with poetry. From childhood, I have never particularly enjoyed poetry. I never liked the poetry units in school and I especially never liked when I had to write my own poems. Once I began reading this book, my opinion changed. Yes, this is probably not what you think of when you think of typical poetry, but it still is. As the boy in this novel says, almost anything can be poetry if you space the words right. I really enjoyed his character. He had humor and was really believable as a school aged boy. He seemed like he would be an easy character to relate to for both boys and girls. I read most of the books by this author, Sharon Creech, when I was younger and I was a huge fan. I'm not sure that if I read this book back then if I would have appreciated it like I do now.

In a classroom I think that this book would be a great one to open up a discussion about poetry. Many kids, not just me, are hesitant to write poems. This book could help to show them that a poem doesn't have to rhyme, it doesn't have to contain vocabulary that you need a dictionary to decipher and that it could even be enjoyable. The main character is skeptical of poetry in the beginning and he eventually begins to find authors that he really enjoys. This could be a real situation for a student who reads this book. It could open up their mind to more than just fiction books and authors.