Common Sense Note
A terrific book for reluctant readers and discussion groups, it packs a load of emotional and intellectual depth into a very accessible package.
Common Sense Review
Reviewed By: Matt Berman
Often the simplest things are the most powerful. In this minor masterpiece Creech accomplishes so much with so little -- no synopsis can convey what makes this book so involving, moving, uplifting. In a series of short, free-verse poems she captures a story, a voice, a mind, a heart. She introduces readers to a few great poems (given mostly in full at the back), inspires them to write their own, and gives a meaningful demonstration of the power of the form.
Though the poems at first seem unconnected, the book is in fact tightly structured, and all the way through she is unobtrusively weaving together strands that come poignantly together in a poem that is the emotional climax. In between these strands are the hints of a teacher patiently and lovingly pushing a boy from stubbornness through timidity to enthusiasm, and helping him come to terms with a traumatic event along the way. Though many children will finish this book in one or two sittings, it bears numerous rereadings and much fruitful discussion, and is a gift to parents and teachers of reluctant readers who want to help their children learn to delve more deeply into literature.
From the Book:
If that is a poem
about the red wheelbarrow
and the white chickens
then any words
can be a poem.
You've just got to
make
short
lines.
Plot Summary:
In this free-verse journal Jack reluctantly comes to feel the power of poetry, and uses it to express his feelings about school, writing, poetry, Walter Dean Myers, and his late dog, Sky. Includes an appendix with most of the poems mentioned in the story.
Related Books:
Other Books by Sharon Creech
Chasing Redbird
Bloomability
Ruby Holler
More Stories in Poetry
Locomotion by Jacqueline Woodson
Under the Pear Tree by Brenda Seabrooke
Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse
Aleutian Sparrow by Karen Hesse
Girl Coming in for a Landing by April Halprin Wayland
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