Love That Dog Reading Response

In RLA we have been reading in book clubs for our novels in verse unit. This is a reading response that shows my thinking on the book Love That Dog.

In the book Love That Dog by Sharon Creech, Jack learns to like and enjoy poetry over the course of a year. The book is written as if Jack wrote it in the form of poetry and hands it into the teacher. Because the book was written from only one person’s perspective, this makes the reader have to infer about a lot of thing mentioned in the book.

One example of this is when the main character, Jack, finally writes a poem after a lot procrastination. When he handed the poem in, or we assumed that he handed the poem in, we didn’t know what the teacher said or thought about it. Instead of showing what happened that way, the author made you infer what happened through Jack’s writing, “What do you mean - Why does so much depend upon a blue car?” pg. 8. This shows that Jack is asking the teacher what her question means. This also shows that the teacher asked Jack a question, “Why does so much depend upon a blue car?” Although the book didn’t say specifically that the teacher asked Jack a question, you can tell by reading what Jack says that she did.

            Something that I noticed while reading is that by inferring and using all of the information that you have, you can learn more. I found out more about Mrs. Stretchberry, Jack’s teacher, from reading about Jack’s reactions and answers to her. An example of this is when Jack responds to Mrs. Stretchberry’s question. (The same one from above), “What do you mean - Why does so much depend upon a blue car?” pg. 8. This shows that after Jack has finally written a poem (which is a big step for him), Mrs. Stretchberry tries to push Jack even further. I also noticed that Mrs. Stretchberry does this in the nicest possible way. She doesn’t ask him to read his poem in front of the class, or even put it on the board. Instead, she asks for something small, but important. All of this inference, from that one page leads me to believe that Mrs. Stretchberry is a kind person who believes in other and tries to help them, which she does a great job at. She can also make insecure people, like Jack, feel less insecure and take more risks at a certain subject.

I can relate to Jack when he was feeling insecure, because at the beginning of 6th grade, I felt similarly about the math class I was placed in. Teachers and my parents helped me less insecure and told me that I was in the right class. As time passed, I became more and more confident. Now at the end of the year, I feel comfortable showing my work to the class and a lot more confident than I did before. This is similar to Jack when he wrote poetry. At first he felt insecure and thought he couldn’t do it, like I did in math. Then, his teacher helps him, like mine and my parents did, and he became a lot more confident by the end of the year, also like I did.

            Another not so obvious example of how this book makes the reader infer is when Jack writes to Mrs. Stretchberry about how he really liked the poem they read in class and he wishes that the author could come to their school. The next time he writes a poem and hands it to Mrs. Stretchberry, it says, “No. No, no, no, no, no, no. I can’t do it. You should do it. You’re a teacher.” pg. 53. When I first read this, I had no idea what it was saying. As I read on, I learned more from  Later on, I understand that Mrs. Stretchberry had told Jack that he should write a letter to the author of his favorite poem, asking him if he could come to their school. It took some time and a lot of thinking, but when I got my answer, it lead me to new ideas and more evidence. Evidence I found from that page is that Mrs. Stretchberry was again pushing him be better. This makes me think that Mrs. Stretchberry is trying to get Jack to improve on his own, but wants to help him to. She does that by guiding him.

           Throughout the book, I’ve made lots of inferences, that have led me to new ideas, more evidence, and a better understanding. Inferring about those few pages led me to the idea that Mrs. Stretchberry is a kind and caring person. Therefore, I think it is a good thing that this book makes the reader infer so much, because inferring can affect the way you think in a good way.