Love That Dog is an unusual and charming book for
children by Sharon Creech – it is a collection of poems. In a sense they are fictional poems, because
they are written from the point of view of Jack, a young boy. Jack writes poems for his teacher, after she
has shown him poems by more famous poets. 
They include “The Red Wheelbarrow” by William Carlos Williams, “The
Tiger” by William Blake, “dog” by Valerie Worth, “Love That Boy” by Walter Dean
Myers. Through the progression of
Jack’s poems, we see him move from skepticism to enthusiasm about poetry, and
he starts to express his feelings. 
Gradually, Jack writes more about his old dog, Sky, who was killed when
he was hit by a car. So, this is a
story about the healing power of poetry for children dealing with grief. Recommended.

© 2003 Christian Perring. All rights reserved.