LOVE THAT DOG (NOVEL)

Title: LOVE THAT DOG
Author: Sharon Creech
Published By: Harper Collins 

Jack doesn’t care much for poetry, writing it or reading it. With a little bit of inspiration of his
teacher, though, he begins to write poems of his own  he writes about a mysterious blue car,
about a lovable dog. Slowly, he realizes that his brain isn’t “empty” and that he can write
poems. After meeting one of his favorite writers, Walter Dean Meyers, Jack writes a
special poem about a painful experience in his life, the death of his dog. By the end of the
book, Jack realizes that writing and reading poetry is not only pleasurable, but that
writing can be a way of dealing with painful memories. Instead of trying to forget those
difficult experiences, he can make something creative out of them.


I have to be honest I really didn't get this until we went over it in class. So I went back and reread this book and this is what I noticed the second time around.I noticed that there are many ways a poet can paint a picture in a reader’s mind with words. They include similes, metaphors, onomatopoeia, and more.
Similes, metaphors, and onomatopoeic language: “blue car…speeding by like a comet in the sky” (p. 8)
“dogs…bark, bark barking” (p. 26) (“Bark” is an onomatopoeic word, a word that sounds similar to the action that it describes.)

More onomatopoeic words:
“whisp, meow, swish” (p. 32) “Sometimes when you are trying to think about something it keeps popping back into your head…until your brain feels like a squished pea.” (p. 64)about the spell check inside the computer:“It is like a miracle…a little helper brain” (p. 67)
About Walter Dean Myers’ voice: “low and deep and friendly and warm like it was reaching out and
wrapping us all up in a big squeeze” 
About Myers’ laugh: “like it was coming from way deep down and bubbling up and rolling and tumbling
out into the air” (p. 83) and last but not least “love that dog —like a bird loves to fly” page 86.