Love That Dog – April Meeting

Something completely different for our April meeting  Sat 17^th 11am-1pm Room A Bebington Library:

LOVE THAT DOG – An outstanding novel extolling the pleasures of poetry as seen through the eyes of one young boy.  Slowly Jack learns the pleasures of writing poetry as Miss Stretchberry encourages him to tell his own story through verse. What emerges is a moving and memorable story about a boy and his dog and his growing passion for poetry.

Lesley Johnson has offered to introduce us to this entertaining book by Sharon Creech, which in turn reminds us of poets and poems we’ve read, or have yet to read… (see extract and review below).  Lesley will talk about what inspired her to recommend this book and provide copies of poems connected to it.  This should be an enjoyable and lively discussion!  I have already ordered my copy and am sending this in good time for you to order yours, if you wish:

Available to buy at Amazon for £3.36  Ctrl+click here: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Love-That-Dog-Sharon-Creech/dp/0747557497/ref=sr_1_1/280-3971178-8511260?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1270134091&sr=8-1 

REVIEW by BENJAMIN ZEPHANIAH Poet & author – Sharon Creech has written a book that is delightful, funny and poetic. That would have been a good enough accomplishment in itself, but this book goes further than that. It illustrates in a thoughtful and accessible way how our lives can be enriched once we open up and recognise that communication is cool. Is it a diary? Is it poetry? Is it a novel? Who cares? It’s simply the most original book I’ve read for years, and now I see it as my duty to tell the world that the book that cannot be pigeonholed has been written. Long live the author, may her imagination touch us all. This is a book that reminds us all that poetry is about exploring every corner of our language, and that storytelling is the first art. When they come together it is magical.

EXTRACT FROM ‘LOVE THAT DOG’ -

SEPTEMBER 13 I don’t want to because boys don’t write poetry. Girls do. SEPTEMBER 21 I tried. Can’t do it. Brain’s empty. SEPTEMBER 27 I don’t understand the poem about the red wheelbarrow and the white chickens and why so much depends upon them. If that is a poem about the red wheelbarrow and the white chickens then any words can be a poem You’ve just got to make short lines. OCTOBER 4 Do you promise not to read it out loud? Do you promise not to put it on the board? Okay, here it is, but I don’t like it. So much depends upon a blue car splattered with mud speeding down the road. OCTOBER 10 What do you mean — Why does so much depend upon a blue car? You didn’t say before that I had to tell why. The wheelbarrow guy didn’t tell why. OCTOBER 17 What was up with the snowy woods poem you read today? Why doesn’t the person just keep going if he’s got so many miles to go before he sleeps? And why do I have to tell more about the blue car splattered with mud speeding down the road? I don’t want to write about that blue car that had miles to go before it slept, so many miles to go in such a hurry. OCTOBER 24 I am sorry to say I did not really understand the tiger tiger burning bright poem but at least it sounded good in my ears Here is the blue car with tiger sounds: Blue car, blue car, shining bright in the darkness of the night who could see you speeding by like a comet in the sky? I could see you speeding by blue car, blue car, shining bright. I could see you speeding by like a comet in the sky. Some of the tiger sounds are still in my ears like drums beat-beat-beating © Sharon Creech

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