Love That Dog

I never thought that I was a fan of poetry. But this book opened my eyes to a new way of reading and appreciating poetry. This was a quick read but had so much power. I could completely relate to the character in this book. I had all the same questions and concerns about poetry. I feel like the child really developed throughout the book along with his poetry. I feel that the way the teacher responded to his poetry, by putting it up on the wall and suggesting he send it to the author, was very encouraging to the boy. I think that the way the poems he wrote related back to poems that were taught in class, which were actually someone else's poems, was a great idea. I loved that the poems were in the back of the book for me to refer back to because I am not familiar with poetry. I don't think that it is likely that the author would show up to the classroom like what happened in the book. But I really enjoyed that part of the story and thought that it added a lot to the plot. I also think that the activity we did in class, reading the poems aloud with different voicing, made the poems come alive. I went back to the book after that class and reread some of the book. I got a lot more out of the story the second time when I read it slowly and added some other emphasis. Great book! I would definitely use this to help introduce or explain poetry to any younger child.