“Thank you for telling me / I could FORGET / those confusing words / and that it isn’t knowing the words / that describe writing / that is important – / it is the thoughts in our heads / that are most important / and that feeling the rhythm / is even more / wondrous / than hearing the rhythm.” p. 56
Reader's Annotation
Last school year, Jack came to love poetry. This year, with the guidance of Miss Stretchberry, he’ll learn about alliteration and onomatopoeia…and maybe even about giving second chances to mean black cats, and how to bring the world to his hearing-challenged mother.
About the Author
Sharon Creech was born in Ohio, and grew up with her parents, a sister and three brothers. Her childhood experiences, and especially family car trips, often figure into her writing. She earned a Master’s degree in literature and writing, and has taught high school language arts in Switzerland and England. Creech has written several books for children -- including the Nobel-prize-winning Walk Two Moons -- but has also written a play, adult fiction, and poetry. She and her husband, who have two grown children, are living in a cottage in England this year. On her Web site (link above), she writes: “Being with my family is what I enjoy most. The next-best thing is writing stories.”
Genre
Journal, Poetry, Novel in Verse
Reading Level/Interest Age
Ages 10-12
Plot Summary
Like Love That Dog, this is also a novel in verse told in the first-person by Jack in the form of a journal assigned by his teacher. In this novel, Jack is once again in Miss Stretchberry’s class, as she has moved up a grade with her students. She introduces the literary devices of alliteration and onomatopoeia, emphasizing, however, that what really matters when writing and enjoying poetry is expressing oneself and giving oneself over to the sensual enjoyment of the poem. Although Jack is meant to be only one year older than he was in the first novel, the level of his vocabulary is advanced for his apparent age at a few moments, perhaps deliberately, suggesting the effect that the study of great literature can have on someone’s ability to express himself. Jack grows in two areas in this novel. First, Jack learns about the mistake of prejudgment courtesy of a neighborhood black cat, at first a seemingly selfish creature. However, through exposure to kittens, poems about cats, and a surprising action on the part of the black cat itself, Jack begins to see the cat differently. The more dramatic growth, however, occurs when Jack begins to wonder whether his mother, who is hearing-challenged, can feel the rhythm of poetry as he can. He thus decides to be more proactive in helping his mother to expand her sensory world.
Series Note
This novel is the sequel to Love That Dog (2001), which I have reviewed here.
Critical Evaluation
While sequels often pale in comparison to their predecessors, Hate that Cat is just as unique and impacting as Love that Dog, in the way that Creech subtly brings a tween’s world to life for us with the relatively short entries in his elementary classroom journal. The importance of family, a recurrent theme in Creech’s work, is a major component of this novel. Early on we see the solidarity of Jack’s nuclear family, in response to Uncle Bill’s pronouncements on what real poetry should and should not look like. When Jack counters these notions and defends poets such as William Carlos Williams, Jack’s father clearly demonstrates his support of Jack. And as the novel develops, we become deeply aware of the love that Jack feels toward his mother, emerging in his touching observations of her, e.g.: “…I cannot explain / how my mother paints / words / with / her / hands / but / she / does…” (p. 73). We see Jack’s growing realization that she may need his help in order to also enjoy the gift of poetry that he has received, e.g.: “And I cannot explain / how-- / when we paint words / with each other-- / I hear sounds / but I do not know / if she hears anything-- / any strange or amazing / or good or terrible / or sparkling or fizzing / sound / at / all” (pp. 73-74). Through Jack’s assistance to his mother, we see the tying together of the theme of family and the theme of the beauty of language, another idea extremely important in Creech’s writing. Creech appears to be reminding us that the wonder and magic of language is at its richest when we share it with others.
Booktalking Ideas
• Talk about Jack’s changing feelings about cats, hinting at, but ending just before the fat black cat does a surprising good turn for Skitter McKitter.
• Give a character booktalk as Jack’s mother thinking aloud (explain that in the book she does not speak with her voice). Have someone simultaneously sign this booktalk if possible.
Curriculum Ideas
• Literature: Over several weeks, students write poems in each of the styles of the poems which Jack’s class studies, culminating in a class poetry reading in front of family and friends.
• Research Skills: Students search poetry databases and printed reference guides, and also interview people they know, to find poems on a topic of interest to them, and share their favorite with the class.
Potential Challenge Issues & Defense
I do not foresee any challenges to this book, but if any were to arise, the following steps could be taken in defense:
• Become familiar enough with the book’s content to promote its literary merits.
• Refer to library’s collection development policy.
• Refer to book reviews from authoritative sources such as ALA, School Library Journal, etc.
• Obtain book reviews from tweens who have read it.
Why I Chose This Book
I recently read and loved Love That Dog, and had to read the sequel.
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