What a great book! This collection of poems forms the story about Jack, a boy who is not excited about poetry. After his teacher guides him along to write a few poems, he begins to become more comfortable with his writing. He decides after a while that his teacher can put his name on his poems that she puts onto the board. By looking at models of poems Jack starts to write more and more. He even writes to an inspirational author, Walter Dean Myers. The first poem that Jack writes is about a blue car, and it goes like this:
So much depends
upon
a blue car
splattered with mud
speeding down the road.
This poem is significant to Jack because the blue car is what killed his dog. Lots of Jack's poems are about his dog so it's clear that he's dealing with some grief. I really liked that the author chose to write the book in blue colored font. This mades me wonder if the font alludes to the color of the car that hit his dog? It would be interesting to find out why the author chose to write this book that way.
Overall, I thought this was an excellent book. I loved that Jack employed the mindset about poetry that many students have. This would be a great book to use when introducing poetry to students. It's interesting that Jack made the discovery that poetry doesn't have to rhyme or have symbols or imagery. Poems can be written by anyone! This is definitely a book I enjoyed reading and look forward to sharing with my students someday.
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