A light first-person narrative and some insightful dream flashes (taken from the protagonist's journal) convey an uprooted 13-year-old's coming of age. As you record, ask students to help you categorize their notices into the characteristics identified so far. If questions cannot be answered from the content, explain that sometimes poems and stories leave us with questions intentionally because authors want us to keep thinking about their work.

Love That Dog Study Guide | Literature Guide | LitCharts

Jack’s understanding of poetry grows upon discovering Walter Dean Myers, the poet behind “Love That Boy. Sky died sometime before the novel begins when a speeding blue car hit him, an event that Jack witnessed. Parents need to know that Love That Dog by Sharon Creech is told in the form of a boy's free-verse journal entries. The Love That Dog quotes below are all either spoken by Sky/The Yellow Dog or refer to Sky/The Yellow Dog. Ultimately, the book ends on an upbeat, inspirational note when Walter Dean Myers, Jack’s beloved poetry hero (and real-life author and National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature) makes a special appearance in Miss Stretchberry’s classroom.Consider referring to another class reading and ask the students to name the subject (what the book was about) and the theme (the message that the author wanted to teach you). She taught high school English and writing courses in England and Switzerland and eventually began writing her own novels for adults. But since writing her third book and her first book for kids, Absolutely Normal Chaos, Creech has written mostly for young readers. But Myers, who died in 2014, advocated fiercely for more diversity in children’s literature (his final published piece was an op-ed in The New York Times asking where all the nonwhite characters in children’s literature were), and he also served as the National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature in 2012 and 2013. One of the real strengths of Love That Dog is that it gives us a great peek into how a kid’s thoughts and feelings can grow and change with the help of a little inspiration over the course of a school year.

Love That Dog: A Novel - Edublogs Love That Dog: A Novel - Edublogs

It’s hard, he argues, to muster much enthusiasm about descriptions of a boring red wheelbarrow or a man sitting for questionable reasons in a snowy wood.Jack’s story also is one of many that traces a reluctant student’s journey as they discover the joy of reading and writing. Owners of dogs will have noticed that, if you provide them with food and water and shelter and affection, they will think you are god. To maximize language practice and accommodate time, consider dividing or reviewing each Language Dive over multiple lessons. Remind them that a theme is a message or main idea relevant to the real world that the author wants you to take away. Further, the novel traces Jack’s growing pride in his own work: he initially refuses to let Miss Stretchberry type his poems at all, then lets her type them but without attributing them to him, and finally lets her attribute his poems to him.