Synopsis; Jack doesn't want to write poetry because, in his opinion, boys don't, girls do. But before he knows it he's writing it reading it and enjoying it. He comes to realize that he's got some very important feelings of his own to examine, and in doing so, what he writes is poetry!

Review: Published in 2001, and shortlisted for the Carnegie award, Love That Dog is an amazing and wonderful book. Its format denies categorization: as the Benjamin Zephaniah quote on the cover says, "Is it a diary? Is it poetry? Is it a novel? Who cares?"! 

Ostensibly this is Jack's school diary, and whenever he is in Room 105, with Miss Stretchberry, doing poetry, he writes his thoughts. Gradually he is encouraged to face the tragedy that is really stopping him from writing, and he finds that poetry is the best medium for expressing deep emotion.

Creech writes with great tenderness and delicacy, with total respect for the inhibitions of a boy trying to understand the poetry of others, and asked to imitate it. The subject of Jack's first attempt, a blue car speeding down the road, appears to be a typically male choice, and he is adamant that it is not to go on display in the classroom. It is only at the end of the book that we find out the importance of this car, when Jack has allowed himself to think again about his yellow dog, Sky.

This is a study in self -psychoanalysis, an incredibly perceptive description of the stages in coming to terms with tragedy. As well as the amazing content, this book is extraordinary in its appearance, from the bright yellow cover, to the layout of the pages, the text sometimes a single word to a line, a few lines to a page, each page dated, chronicling the development of Jack's thoughts about poetry and his dog. Even his shape poem 'My Yellow Dog' appears as he would have drawn it.

An appendix to the book includes the poems used as stimulii for the class poetry writing, which show the aspects of each that Jack/Creech adapts. Love That Dog is an invaluable teaching resource for so many reasons. For PSHE, for the bereft child, as an acknowledgement of the 'difference' of poetry, for the study of poetry, the writing experience, the layout of text and presentation. It's also an inspirational read!

2006-10-18