Return to Miss Stretchberry's class with Jack, the reluctant poet, who over the course of a year encounters new and challenging things like metaphors, alliterations, onomatopoeia, and one mean fat black cat!
The Newbery Medal-winning author of Walk Two Moons, Sharon Creech, introduced Jack in Love That Dog, a New York Times bestseller. Both Love That Dog and Hate That Cat are approachable, funny, warm-hearted introductions to poetry told from the point of view of a very real kid wrestling with school assignments.
These books are fast reads that will be welcomed by middle graders as they too wonder how poetry and schoolwork connect with their interests and how to uncover their true voices.
In Hate That Cat, Jack is only trying to save that fat black cat stuck in the tree by his bus stop--but the cat scratches him instead! At school Miss Stretchberry begins teaching new poems, everything from William Carlos Williams to Valerie Worth to T.S. Eliot.
As the year progresses, Jack gradually learns to love that cat and finds new ways to express himself.
Show moreReturn to Miss Stretchberry's class with Jack, the reluctant poet, who over the course of a year encounters new and challenging things like metaphors, alliterations, onomatopoeia, and one mean fat black cat!
The Newbery Medal-winning author of Walk Two Moons, Sharon Creech, introduced Jack in Love That Dog, a New York Times bestseller. Both Love That Dog and Hate That Cat are approachable, funny, warm-hearted introductions to poetry told from the point of view of a very real kid wrestling with school assignments.
These books are fast reads that will be welcomed by middle graders as they too wonder how poetry and schoolwork connect with their interests and how to uncover their true voices.
In Hate That Cat, Jack is only trying to save that fat black cat stuck in the tree by his bus stop--but the cat scratches him instead! At school Miss Stretchberry begins teaching new poems, everything from William Carlos Williams to Valerie Worth to T.S. Eliot.
As the year progresses, Jack gradually learns to love that cat and finds new ways to express himself.
Show moreSharon Creech has written twenty-one books for young people and is
published in over twenty languages. Her books have received awards
in both the U.S. and abroad, including the Newbery Medal for Walk
Two Moons, the Newbery Honor for The Wanderer, and Great Britain's
Carnegie Medal for Ruby Holler.
Before beginning her writing career, Sharon Creech taught English
for fifteen years in England and Switzerland. She and her husband
now live in Maine, "lured there by our grandchildren," Creech
says.
www.sharoncreech.com
Gr 4-8-In this worthy sequel to Love That Dog (HarperCollins, 2001), Jack is once again in Miss Stretchberry's class, developing his poetry composition skills and learning from the masters. His Uncle Bill disparages the free-verse form and mundane subjects, stressing the importance of metaphor, alliteration, onomatopoeia, and LARGE moments. But Jack works his way into these concepts by means of Miss S's introduction to the work of Edgar Allan Poe, T. S. Eliot, William Carlos Williams, Valerie Worth, and Walter Dean and Chris Myers, and her constant encouragement of his own attempts. Jack, still healing from the loss of his dog, resists getting a new pet and despises an aloof neighborhood black cat with which he has an unpleasant run-in. He also grapples with putting into words his feelings about his mother, who is deaf, a fact that is slowly and deftly revealed in his poems. When the Christmas-present kitten he has learned to love disappears, Jack grieves anew, until the despised black cat saves the day. Once again, all of the poems are addressed to Miss Stretchberry, and Jack's growing excitement as he discovers the delights of sound ("Tintinnabulation!") and expression is palpable. He also learns the poetry of silence as he and his mother communicate through sign language and tender gestures. The relevant poems are included at the end of the book, along with a hefty bibliography of "Books on the Class Poetry Shelf." Readers will be touched and inspired once more.-Marie Orlando, Suffolk Cooperative Library System, Bellport, NY Copyright 2008 Reed Business Information.
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