77. & 78. - Love That Dog AND Hate That Cat - Sharon Creech

Love That Dog, 2001
Hate That Cat, 2008
Rating for both: FIVE!

Two very special books, both written in verse, both with layer upon layer of witty writing, clever intertwining of poetry, and a healthy dose of a very cool relationship between a student and his teacher. I LOVED these books. I've read Love That Dog twice, and just knew that Hate That Cat couldn't come close. WRONG!!! So wrong....I think Hate That Cat is even better! Both are short reads, although Love That Dog is a bit shorter, and perhaps a little harder for some kids to get into. I read it aloud to my fourth graders after spending a week prepping them by sharing Robert Frost's "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" and "The Pasture", William Carlos William's "The Red Wheelbarrow:, many of Valerie Worth's SHORT poems, William Blake's "The Tyger," Walter Dean Myer's "Love That Boy", and some of the poetry of Arnold Adoff. They were oh-so prepared, and they loved it. It was great fun to read aloud, and the kids' reactions were very gratifying.

Now I'm preparing the pre-poetry for Hate That Cat. There's more William Carlos Williams and Valerie Worth,with additional poems from Edgar Allan Poe, Alfred Lord Tennyson, T. S. Eliot ("The Naming of Cats"!!!), and Walter Dean Myer's son, Christopher. There's alliteration and onomotapoeia, similes and metaphors, rhythm and image. There's laugh-out-loud cleverness and a rolling, thought-provoking storyline.

I don't want to share the plots. They're a joy to watch unfold. They take 20-30 minutes each to read. Enjoy, enjoy.

A River of Words - Jen Bryant

The Story of William Carlos Williams
Illustrator: Melissa Sweet
For: kids & poetry lovers
Rating: 5
2008
endpapers:light lime green with other greens in blocks, 5 poems on front, 4 poems on back

From the time he was a young boy, William Carlos Williams loved to be outdoors, taking things slowly, looking at the world. He loved the gentle sounds and natural rhythm of nature...and this same feeling carried over to the times when his teacher read poetry aloud. At a young age he began writing poetry. He filled journals, he wrote all the time. But he knew that writing poetry would not support a family, so he went into medicine, becoming a doctor. A good one. For forty years. But his good friends - writers (Ezra Pound, Hilda Doolittle), and artists (Charles Demuth) kept his creative juices flowing. He kept writing. And writing.

This books includes timelines (1883-1963), all sorts of interesting added information from the author and the illustrator, a list of books for further reading, and a short selection (9) of poems.

The illustrations are interesting and different, usng an altered book technique that delights my own creative juices. The way this book is illustrated really gives you a chance to think beyond the words. I think it's very effective. I love it.

The Red Wheelbarrow

so much depends
upon

a red wheel
barrow

glazed with rain
water

beside the white
chickens

The Great Figure

Among the rain
and lights
I saw the figure 5
in gold
on a red
firetruck
moving
tense
unheeded
to gong clangs
siren howls
and wheels rumbling
through the dark city.

This is Just to Say - Joyce Sidman

POETRY
Illustrator: Pamela Zagarenski
2007
48 Pgs.
Rating: 5
For: Middle Grades
Endpapers: Azure

18 poems of apology, followed by 17 responses (one is a poem for two voices) - written to and from the students in Ms. Merz's class. They show the give and take that go on in relationships - between friends, siblings, parent and child, teacher and student, pet owner and pet. These are the inner thinkings of the kids in a class, and I read through it twice with delight. It's really splendid.

The book opens with William Carlos Willim's "This is Just to Say," an all-time favorite of mine, which is a model for the poems to follow:


This is Just to Say

I have eaten
the plums
that were in the icebox

and which
you were probably
saving
for breakfast

Forgve me
they were delicous
so sweet
and so cold.

-----William Carlos Williams

The illustrations are very, very different- creative and fun. They appear to be collaged onto the page; bits and pieces of drawings on graph paper, notebook paper, ripped construction papers, dictionary pages. Colored-in line drawings rubber stamping, paint and creativity cover the edge-to-edge colored backgrounds. It's an picture book/altered-book-lover's dream.

I will include a poem of apology and its response. It was VERY difficult to choose which to include, so I went through and read all the poems for a delightful third time.

To Manga, My Hamster

I wish I could set you free
like that day you escaped
and ran all over the house.
That was an amazing day.
My mother screamed.
My sister cried.
All because you were loose somewhere,
burrowing through pillows and toys.

When Mom finally found you
huddled in the mop bucket
(and you bit her)
you looked so fierce,
like your wild cousins
that roam the jungles of Asia.
I wish I had jungles to give you.
I wish that could be your life.

Please forgive me.
All I have to offer
is this warm, cozy cage
and my fingers
scratching behind your ears.

--------by Ricky

Sorry Back, from the Hamster

I'm sorry I bit your mom's finger
and hung on to it like that.
Hamsters are not normally
bloodthirsty,
but I'd had a lot of adventures by then
and I was tired.
Her hand was a huge scary claw
coming at me.
The blood tasted like rust.

The truth is, at first
I was so, so happy to be free!!!
But later I was so, so glad
to be back
curled in the warm palm
of you hand.

.------by Ricky (writing for his hamster)

It would be fun to have each student in a class take a different pair of poems, read them over and over, and "learn" about their subject/s. They could then create more writing - prose or poetry, and more art, about what they have added to the picture of these subjects in their minds.