BookBright
ABOUT THE BOOK
NO SPOILERSJack is a student in Miss Stretchberry's class, Room 105, who announces at the start of the school year that he does not want to write poetry, because in his mind that is something girls do, not boys. He tries a week later but cannot think of anything to say. Then, puzzling over a poem his teacher read the class about a red wheelbarrow and some white chickens, Jack decides that if lines that short and plain count as a poem, he can write one too, since, as he puts it, "you've just got to make short lines." He starts small, with a poem about a blue car speeding down the road, then keeps writing all year, responding to poems by Robert Frost and Valerie Worth. Along the way, his teacher keeps steering him toward a harder subject: a dog he is not ready to write about yet.
Free Battle of the Books questions for Love That Dog
SPOILERSEvery one of these has the same answer, and that is the point. In a real battle the question is read aloud with a dozen other books in play, and students have a few seconds to place it. Here is what a battle might ask about Love That Dog. Use them as a quiz, a trivia round, or BOTB practice.
Where in the book they come from
- Early in the book
In what book is a blue car splattered with mud the subject of a poem?
✓ Answer
Love That Dog by Sharon Creech
Jack writes this short poem but first asks his teacher to promise not to read it out loud or put it on the board. Later he rewrites it with tiger sounds, so the car shines bright and speeds by like a comet.
- First half
In what book does a drive end at a red brick building with blue lettering?
✓ Answer
Love That Dog by Sharon Creech
This is the animal shelter where Jack and his father pick out a yellow dog, who wraps his paws around Jack's arm in the car. Jack writes the scene down for his teacher, and she types it up on yellow paper.
- First half
In what book does a kid wonder who the anonymous poet in his class is?
✓ Answer
Love That Dog by Sharon Creech
Jack admires a tree shaped poem his teacher puts up and wants to know who wrote it and why that person left a name off. He even asks if the poet felt the way he once did, when he didn't think his own words were poems.
- Second half
In what book does a letter to an author begin by saying its sender is only a boy?
✓ Answer
Love That Dog by Sharon Creech
Jack's letter to Walter Dean Myers opens with a long pile of reasons the poet will probably never read it. Later in the letter he invites the poet to his school, which he describes as a clean place with mostly nice people in it.
- Second half
In what book is a brain said to feel like "a squashed pea"?
✓ Answer
Love That Dog by Sharon Creech
Jack writes about trying not to think about something right after deciding to stop counting on an answer to his letter. When Miss Stretchberry asks to type it up, he says yes but tells her to leave his name off.
- Near the end
In what book is a spell checker called a little helper brain?
✓ Answer
Love That Dog by Sharon Creech
Jack discovers spell checking while learning to use the computer so he can type up his own words. He also hopes a teaching-typing thing will help his fingers go as fast as his brain.
