Love That Dog, a novel, written by Sharon Creech was an amazing book! I enjoyed every second I spent reading it. It’s written in such a simple, yet thrilling way, and it actually made me think that this young boy named Jack was talking to me. Sharon Creech wrote the entire book as in poetry format making everything that Jack said and did become a poem. He was portryed as such a fun-spirited, amusing boy, who had so much to say.
At the beginning of the novel he started off expressing himself with just a few words that were strictly to the point. As the novel progressed, he began to use more and more words. I found it so ironic that the book began with him saying “I don’t want to because boys don’t write poetry. Girls do. I tried. Can’t do it. Brain’s empty.” and by the end of the book he had written so many peoms with so much meaning behind each. He had also taken into account the poems that his teacher had read, and that he had originally questioned the purpose and meaning of, and was using them in his own written work and language; for example the “tiger tiger” poem that included repitition of the same words or phrases over and over.
Jack’s first poem, about the blue car covered with mud that went speeding down the road, seemed so simplistic and meaningless, but in reality it had lots of meaning behind it. It seemed as if Jack didn’t realize why he had written this in a poem and didn’t want to explain to the teacher why he had chosen to write this. It seemed as though he was just mocking the poems he had heard or read, not that he was making a conscious effort to come up with a splendid poem.
Even though I loved the entire book, several of my favorite parts included Jack continuously telling his teacher that she could display his work, but not to put his name on it and the letter that he wrote to Walter Dean Meyers. In the beginning Jack didn’t want to write poetry, claimed he couldn’t write poetry, began writing simple poems, and by the end of the book he had developed into a great writer who loved poetry and poets. He had also reached the point where he was very proud of his works and wanted them to be displayed for others to see. When reading the letter Jack wrote to Walter Dean Meyers, I couldn’t help but laugh. I adored the way he wrote it, even though it was very choppy and on-going, he got his point across and expressed himself in a way that reflected his personality and style.
Once I got to the end of the book, I realized just how Jack got started with writing poetry, the poem about the “blue car covered with mud speeding down the road had opened his eyes. I couldn’t help but think back to the first few pages when he wrote this poem, where I thought it was just something random that he had came up with. In reality, Jack was writing from a tragic experience he had been through with his dog named sky that was hit by a blue car covered with mud speeding down the road. So afterall, it was a poem that came from Jack’s heart and that was very special to him.
It was fascinating to me to see this young boy, Jack, progress from a non-writer of poetry to a lover of poetry. I was amazed at how he progressed from page to page, and by the end of the book he was so proud to show his work to the world. The most touching moment of the book came on the very last page, when Jack wrote a poem about Sky, that was inspired by his favorite poet, Walter Dean Meyers.
