was bubbling
and all of the thoughts
in my head
were buzzing
and
I wanted to keep
Mr. Walter Dean Myers
at our school
forever.
JUNE 6
Dear Mr. Walter Dean Myers,
Thank you
a hundred million times
for
leaving your work
and your family
and your things-people-have-to-do
to come and visit us
in our school
in our class.
We hope you liked your visit.
We think maybe you did
because
you were
smile-smile-smiling
all over the place.
And when you read
your poems
you had the
best best BEST
voice
low and deep and friendly and warm
like it was reaching out and
wrapping us all up
in a big squeeze
and when you laughed
you had the
best best BEST
laugh I’ve ever heard in my life
like it was coming from way down deep
and bubbling up and
rolling and tumbling
out into the air.
We hope we didn’t ask you
too many questions
but we thank you
for answering every which one
and especially for saying
that you would be
flattered
if someone used
some of your words
and especially if they
added a note that
they were
inspired by
Walter Dean Myers.
And it was nice of you
to read all of our poems
on the bulletin board
and I hope it didn’t
make you
too sad
when you read the one
about my dog Sky
getting smooshed in the road.
And I think you liked
the brownies, too,
right?
Thank you for
coming to see us
Mr. Walter Dean Myers.
Inside this envelope
is a poem
using some of your words.
I wrote it.
It was
inspired by
you
Mr. Walter Dean Myers.
From your number one fan,
Jack
LOVE THAT DOG
(INSPIRED BY WALTER DEAN MYERS)
BY JACK
Love that dog,
like a bird loves to fly
I said I love that dog
like a bird loves to fly
Love to call him in the morning
love to call him
“Hey there, Sky!”
Excerpt from Hate That Cat
Read an excerpt
from Sharon Creech’s
new novel
HATE
THAT
CAT
JACK
ROOM 204—MISS STRETCHBERRY
SEPTEMBER 12
I hate that cat
like a dog hates a rat
I said I hate that cat
like a dog hates a rat
Hate to see it in the morning
hate to see that
F A T black cat.
SEPTEMBER 13
Sorry
I didn’t know
you liked cats.
Didn’t know
you have one.
SEPTEMBER 14
More poetry?
You probably think
we will remember
what we learned
last year, right?
What if we don’t remember?
What if our brains shrunk?
What if it’s too hard?
But I am glad
you are my teacher
again.
I hope you will
keep moving up
a grade
every year
along with me.
You understand
my
brain.
SEPTEMBER 19
No, I can’t write any more
about my dog Sky.
Maybe all of the words
about Sky
flew out of my head
last year.
I think about him
all the time
and I see him
in my mind
and some of his yellow fur
is still on my yellow chair
and sometimes I think
I hear him
uh-rum, uh-rum
that sound he made
when he was happy.
But no, I can’t write about Sky
a-n-y-m-o-r-e.
Maybe I could write about
a cat
a mean cat
a crazy mean fat black cat.
Although . . . my uncle Bill
who is a teacher
in a college
said those words I wrote
about Sky
were NOT poems.
He said they were just
words
coming
out
of
my
head
and that a poem has to rhyme
and have regular meter
and SYMBOLS and METAPHORS
and onomoto-something and
alliter-something.
And I wanted
to
punch
him.
SEPTEMBER 21
Another thing Uncle Bill said
was that my lines should be
l - o - n - g - e - r
like in real writing
But here is what happens when I try to make them longer the page is too wide and the words get all mumble jumbled and it makes my eyes hurt all that white space the edge of the page so far away and in order to get all the words down that are coming out of my head I have to forget the commas and periods or I have to go back and stick, them in, all over, the place, like this, which looks, if you ask me, stupid, but if you write short lines, a person knows where to breathe, short or long, and I hate to read, those long lines, and I don’t want, to write them, either.
SEPTEMBER 26
I wish you would tell
my uncle Bill
all those things you said today
about our own rhythms
and our own IMAGES
bouncing around in our words
and making them POEMS.
And yes I understand
that if I am ever the
President of the United States
I might be expected to write
very very long lines
but in the meantime
I can make my lines
short
short
short
if I want to.
But even if you told
my uncle Bill
all that stuff
he wouldn’t believe you.
He likes to argue.
My mother likes my
short
lines.
She runs her fingers
down them
and then
taps
her lips
once, twice.
And I think I understood
what you said about
onomoto-something
and alliter-something
not HAVING to be
in a poem
and how sometimes
they ENRICH a poem
but sometimes
they can also make a poem
sound purple.
Purple!
Ha ha ha.
OCTOBER 3
Okay, okay, okay
I will learn how to spell
ALLITERATION
and
ONOMATOPOEIA
(right?)
and I will practice them
just in case I ever
need them
to ENRICH
something.
Ready?
Um.
Um.
I can’t do it.
Brain frozen.
First you need to have
something to write about.
You can’t just
alliterate
and
onomatopoeiate
all over the place
can you?
About the Author
Photo credit Lyle Rigg
SHARON CREECH is the author of the Newbery Medal winner WALK TWO MOONS and the Newbery Honor Book THE WANDERER. Her other work includes the novels THE GREAT UNEXPECTED, THE UNFINISHED ANGEL, HATE THAT CAT, THE CASTLE CORONA, REPLAY, HEARTBEAT, GRANNY TORRELLI MAKES SOUP, RUBY HOLLER, LOVE THAT DOG, BLOOMABILITY, ABSOLUTELY NORMAL CHAOS, CHASING REDBIRD, and PLEASING THE GHOST, as well as three picture books: A FINE, FINE SCHOOL; FISHING IN THE AIR; and WHO’S THAT BABY? Ms. Creech and her husband live in Maine. You can visit her online at www.sharoncreech.com.
Discover great authors, exclusive offers, and more at hc.com.
Books by Sharon Creech
WALK TWO MOONS
ABSOLUTELY NORMAL CHAOS
PLEASING THE GHOST
CHASING REDBIRD
BLOOMABILITY
THE WANDERER
FISHING IN THE AIR
LOVE THAT DOG
A FINE, FINE SCHOOL
RUBY HOLLER
GRANNY TORRELLI MAKES SOUP
HEARTBEAT
WHO’S THAT BABY?
REPLAY
THE CASTLE CORONA
THE UNFINISHED ANGEL
Credits
Cover art © 2001 by William Steig
Cover design by Alicia Mikles
Copyright
Love That Dog
Copyright © 2001 by Sharon Creech
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
www.harpercollinschildrens.com
* * *
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Creech, Sharon.
Love that dog / by Sharon Creech
p. cm.
Summary: A young student, who comes to love poetry through a personal understanding of what different famous poems mean to him, surprises himself by writing his own inspired poem.
ISBN 0-06-029287-3 — ISBN 0-06-029289-X (lib. bdg.)
ISBN 0-06-440959-7 (pbk.)
EPUB Edition © November 2014 ISBN 9780061961335
[1. Poetry—Fiction.] I. Title.
PZ7.C8615 Lo 2001
00-054233
[Fic]—dc21
CIP
AC
* * *
Revised Harper edition, 2008
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