Love That Dog by Sharon Creech is a poetic and fictional story that shows the strong bond between people and animals. It had many emotional, positive, and friendly elements which made the book an unforgettable read.
Synopsis
This heartwarming story is about a young boy named Jack who discovers his talent and love through poetry. He writes about his days at school, his family, other poets, and his dog Sky. Throughout the story, Jack is realizing the true meaning of poetry which encourages him to write it about anything.
Review
The writing style that Sharon Creech used was free verse poetry. It is from the perspective of Jack, like diary entries. Each poem has a very important and expressive meaning to the story, and it explains everything about Jack and how he discovered his love for poetry. What I noticed when I was reading is that the story is about the love for poetry and expressing life through free verse, and Creech wrote the book in that style. She was very creative for that, and it conveyed to the reader that she put a lot of thought into the story.
The main characters in Love That Dog are Jack, Miss Stretchberry, and Sky. Miss Stretchberry isn’t mentioned a lot, but she did have a very important role in Jack’s life and in the story. She didn’t have any noticeable growth, but she helped Jack grow up and find his love for poetry. Jack is the protagonist. He is a typical boy who goes to school and thinks pink and poetry are for girls. But, every time he read a poem in class, he would slowly develop a liking for reading, writing, and poetry. Sky, who is Jack’s pet dog, had the biggest impact on his owner. He influenced Jack and the way he acts, writes, what he writes about, and softened his heart. Sky and Miss Stretchberry had a very powerful and emotional connection and bond with Jack which makes them loving and important characters.
The main themes in this story were friendship, loss, and the power of expression. This was all written in free verse poetry and gave each theme their own meaning and was written beautifully. The friendship between Jack, Sky, and poetry was very powerful. Poetry was a very important element in Jack’s life, and he decided to include Sky in his writing so it could be something they both bonded over. Jack has had a big loss too. He prefers animals over people, so the loss of animals makes him very expressive and emotional which makes for a very special poem.
Jack initially disliked poetry, and thought it was a very girly thing to do. That changed gradually after he really saw the true side of it. Reading poems was one thing, but writing them himself and actually understanding them and the reference was the primary thing. Jack learned to express grief, love, confusion, all of his mixed feelings into poetry. There were many references of other authors and poems that Creech had used, and she made her own using the references. Nothing was predictable, and it definitely left a mark.
What I liked most about the story was the love for animals and the bond between the two characters. The feelings were mutual and they were so happy when they were together. There was one big plot twist that really shaped the story, but it wasn’t a happy one.
What I did not like about Love That Dog was that there are times that moments that needed more recognition felt rushed and weren’t spoken about enough. Since the book is pretty short and written in verse, it is hard to tell everything in detail. But, It would’ve been nicer if some moments in the story had more details and depth.
This poetic story definitely has a special place in my heart. It explores the meaning of poetry and how it impacts someone. There is a sequel to this book which is called Hate That Cat by Sharon Creech which is also very good too. If you love animals, poetry, and the idea of friendship, then you will enjoy this book.
I would give this book: 📚📚📚📚📚 – an expressive, heartwarming story!
Love, Smaya
GFB Ambassador