Love That Dog

Title: “Love That Dog”

Author: Sharon Creech 

Genre: Poetry

Publisher: HarperCollins               

Copyright Date: 2001

Pages in Book: 112 pages

Reading Level: 8-12 years

Summary: This is a poetic book, about a young schoolboy named Jack. He doesn’t like poetry, nor does he like to write it. Throughout the entire book, he is writing to his teacher, asking her to stop giving them poetry assignments. The story starts off with several little poems, ones without much meaning, and end with Jack writing many interesting poems. He finds out that deep down, he actually is a poet.

Reaction: I thought this was a rather cute book. I’m not big on poetry, so I wasn’t looking forward to reading this particular book. But as I began reading it, I thought it was quite humorous. I would have acted the exact same way towards writing those assignments as Jack did. And the poems were quite good towards the end of the story!

Recommendation: As much as I hate to admit it, I’d recommend this book to any child, within the reading levels. I think it’s a great introduction to poems, and it’s one that I would have wanted to read, instead of the awful poems that my teacher would make me write.

Potential Problems/Conflicts: I liked this book, and I didn’t have any problems with it. I honestly think that children would love to read this book.