60 pages • 2 hours read
Sharon CreechLove That Dog
Fiction | Novel/Book in Verse | Middle Grade | Published in 2001A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
During Reading
Reading Questions & Paired Texts
Reading Check and Short Answer Questions on key points are designed for guided reading assignments, in-class review, formative assessment, quizzes, and more.
PAGES 1-21
Reading Check
1. If anything can be a poem, what is the only thing the writer must do?
2. What is Jack’s frustration in his October 10 entry?
3. How does Jack change his original poem after listening to the tiger poem?
4. What is the one thing that Miss Stretchberry cannot do if she puts Jack’s poems on the board?
Short Answer
Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. What is Jack’s first poem? How does he feel about it?
2. Compare and contrast how Jack feels about the “wheelbarrow” poem, the “snowy woods” poem, and the “tiger burning bright” poem. Do any of these pieces inspire him?
3. Which subject does Jack not want to write about? How does he express his emotions on the subject?
4. How does Jack’s teacher respond to his entry about the small dog poem? What is Jack’s reaction to her?
Paired Resources
- Poetry Foundation shares William Carlos Williams’s 1938 poem.
- This connects with the themes What Makes a Poem, Voices Have Power, and The Purpose of Poetry.
- What does Jack like about Williams’s poem? What does he dislike?
“Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening”
- Poetry Foundation shares Robert Frost’s 1923 poem.
- This connects with the themes What Makes a Poem, Voices Have Power, and The Purpose of Poetry.
- How does Jack respond to the language that Frost uses in his poems?
- Poetry Foundation shares Robert Frost’s 1910 poem.
- This connects with the themes What Makes a Poem, Voices Have Power, and The Purpose of Poetry.
- How do Frost’s poems shape Jack’s understanding of the meaning of poetry?
- Poetry Foundation shares William Blake’s 1794 poem.
- This connects with the themes What Makes a Poem, Voices Have Power, and The Purpose of Poetry.
- Which element of Blake’s poem does Jack resonate with the most? Why?
PAGES 22-63
Reading Check
1. What does Jack hypothesize that William Carlos Williams and Robert Frost were doing with their poetry?
2. What are the four requests that Jack makes about his first poem with his dog?
3. Why was Jack’s poem about the apple “so great”?
4. What was Jack’s dog’s name?
5. Why does Jack not want his teacher to type up the “secret” poem?
6. What does Jack’s teacher say might take months to happen?
Short Answer
Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. What happens in the first poem that Jack shares about his dog?
2. How does the poem about street music inspire Jack to speak about his own neighborhood?
3. At which point do Jack’s feelings toward anonymous poets change during the novel?
4. How does Jack respond to the poem entitled “Love That Boy,” and what request does he make?
5. What are Jack’s concerns about writing a poem after reading Myers’s poetry? What phrase eases these concerns?
6. What idea does Jack come up with? How does he present this idea to his teacher, and what is her advice?
Paired Resources
“Dog”
- Poemist shares Valerie Worth’s 20th-century poem.
- This connects with the themes What Makes a Poem, Voices Have Power, and The Purpose of Poetry.
- Which elements of Worth’s poem does Jack connect with the most? How does this poem affect his subsequent poetry?
- Internet Archive includes Arnold Adoff’s poem on page 25.
- This connects with the themes What Makes a Poem, Voices Have Power, and The Purpose of Poetry.
- How does Adoff’s poem affect the way that Jack understands the visuality of poetry?
- A visual and reading of S.C. Rigg’s piece is available on YouTube (Please note: S.C. Riggs is Sharon Creech’s pseudonym).
- This connects with the themes What Makes a Poem, Voices Have Power, and The Purpose of Poetry.
- What is the meaning of concrete poetry? How does Jack respond to concrete poems?
- Poemist shares Walter Dean Myers’s 20th-century poem.
- This connects with the themes What Makes a Poem, Voices Have Power, and The Purpose of Poetry.
- Why does Jack connect with this poem more than the others studied in class? Which elements have a particularly profound effect on him and his writing?
PAGES 64-86
Reading Check
1. What does Jack compare his brain to “when you are trying / not to think about something” (Pages 64-74)?
2. What request does Jack ask of his teacher in regard to typing?
3. What great news does Jack receive?
4. What does Jack want his teacher to hide?
Short Answer
Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. What is “MY SKY” about, and what is significant about this poem for Jack?
2. Which literary techniques does Jack use in his “MAY 28” entry to make comparisons in the first two stanzas?
3. How does Jack respond to the special visit? What poem does he share at the end?
Recommended Next Reads
Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech
- Creech’s 1994 award-winning novel follows two coming-of-age narratives. Thirteen-year-old Salamanca Tree Hiddle tells the first narrative as she travels with her grandparents to Idaho and shares with them the story of Phoebe Winterbottom, while the second narrative reveals Salamanca’s own story—that of her missing mother.
- Shared themes include Voices Have Power.
- Shared topics include 20th-century children’s literature and supporting creativity in children’s writing.
- Walk Two Moons on SuperSummary
Hate That Cat by Sharon Creech
- Creech’s 2008 sequel to Love that Dog follows Jack as he further explores poetry in Miss Stretchberry’s class.
- Shared themes include What Makes a Poem, Voices Have Power, and The Purpose of Poetry.
- Shared topics include poetry in the classroom, writing about animals, and finding important topics.
Reading Questions Answer Key
PAGES 1-21
Reading Check
1. “[M]ake short lines.” (Pages 1-9)
2. That he has to share “why” “so much depends upon the blue car” (Pages 1-9)
3. He adds “tiger sounds.” (Pages 1-9)
4. He does not want her to put his name. (Pages 10-21)
Short Answer
1. Jack’s first poem reads, “So much depends / upon / a blue car / splattered with mud / speeding down the road.” He says he does not like it and hopes the teacher does not share it with the class. (Pages 1-9)
2. He questions the central themes of the first three poems that his class studies. For the “wheelbarrow” poem, he is surprised that it could be considered poetry; for the “snowy woods” poem, he questions why the poet makes his subject continue to travel; and for the “tiger burning bright” poem, he does not understand its purpose but enjoys the sounds that emanate from reading it (note: please see the Paired Resources for the full-length texts of these poems). (Pages 1-9)
3. Jack hesitates to write about pets. First, he says that he does not have a pet, and then he admits that he had one in the past, but that he “[doesn’t] want to write about it.” Finally, he mocks his teacher’s suggestion that he “pretend [he] still [has] that pet” for the purpose of the poem, providing his own suggestion that he select a new pet. (Pages 10-21)
4. In the first entry, Jack reflects that he likes reading “small” poems, particularly the one about a dog. His following entry insinuates that his teacher enjoyed reading his entry even though it was not a poem. He admits that it does look like a poem, but that the picture of the yellow dog next to it is not an accurate representation of his dog. (Pages 10-21)
PAGES 22-63
Reading Check
1. “Maybe [they were] just / making pictures with words.” (Pages 22-41)
2. Not to add his name, to leave out the part about other animals getting killed, to print the poem on yellow paper, and to title the poem “YOU COME TOO” (Pages 22-41)
3. It is “so great” because “the words / make the shape / of the thing / that the poem / is about.” (Pages 22-41)
4. Sky (Pages 42-63)
5. He thinks it “uses too many of / Mr. Walter Dean Myers’s / words” and might make “Mr. Walter Dean Myers / […] mad.” (Pages 42-63)
6. For Jack to get a response to his letter to Myers (Pages 42-63)
Short Answer
1. Jack describes the day that he and his father went to the animal shelter. After walking down rows of dogs looking for homes, they find the dog they eventually adopt, who shares his love with Jack as they ride home. (Pages 22-41)
2. The poem about street music makes Jack reflect about the noises he hears on his street. He realizes that although his street is noisy, there is less noise there than in the poem about street music. Inspired, he describes the visuals of the street, such as the houses and signs. (Pages 22-41)
3. Upon submission of “MY YELLOW DOG,” Jack allows his teacher to put his poem on the board with his name. In the following entry, he is curious as to who wrote the anonymous poem shaped in the tree, and he wonders if the person chose anonymity for similar reasons to him. (Pages 22-41)
4. Jack resonates with Myers’s “Love That Boy” since his father addresses him with the phrase “hey there, son,” and he used to address his dog with “hey there, Sky.” He tells his teacher that he copied the poem and put it on his wall, and requests that the teacher do the same so the students can look at it in class. (Pages 42-63)
5. Deeply affected by Myers’s poem, he writes one of his own but is concerned that he is plagiarizing Myers. In the next entry, Jack reflects on the words “inspired by,” which he likes very much as he thinks it describes the secret poem he wrote. (Pages 42-63)
6. Jack has the idea that his teacher could invite Myers to their school to meet students. She suggests he write a letter for her to mail, but he is too embarrassed to do so at first. He eventually writes it, insisting that Myers should only come if he has the time. (Pages 42-63)
PAGES 64-86
Reading Check
1. “[A] squashed pea” (Pages 64-74)
2. To show him “how to use / the computer” (Pages 64-74)
3. That Myers will visit their school (Pages 75-86)
4. The poem that was inspired by Myers (Pages 75-86)
Short Answer
1. “MY SKY,” which is about the death of Jack’s dog Sky, finally answers some of the questions that Jack did not answer earlier in his journal, such as the significance of the blue car and the sadness of speaking about a pet. It is also the first poem that Jack types himself. He allows his teacher to put it on the board. (Pages 64-74)
2. In this entry, Jack uses two similes. First, he compares the bulletin board to a plant: “The bulletin board / looks like it’s / blooming words.” Then he compares the bookcase to a tree: “And the bookcase / looks like it’s / sprouting books.” (Pages 75-86) Jack is thrilled with Myers’s visit. He writes him a thank-you note and includes his poem “LOVE THAT DOG,” which is “inspired by” Myers’s work. (Pages 75-86)
Related Titles
By Sharon Creech
