For a long time now, I’ve been a big fan of Sharon Creech’s book Love that Dog.    I loved Jack and Miss Stretchberry so much that I bought a classroom set to share with the English teachers in my building.  You could teach your entire poetry unit with that book.  At least that’s what I thought.  But now, I’m convinced that you need another book… Hate that Cat.  Jack and Miss Stretchberry are back for another round of reading and writing poetry.  This time, they explore the sounds of poetry, and it looks like I’m going to have to buy another classroom set. 

As a cat lover, I was initially put off by the title – but it all comes right in the end.  One of Jack’s final poems in the book is titled “Love that Cat”, again with apologies to Mr. Walter Dean Myers who makes another appearance.   As with all good sequels, we learn more about Jack in this book, and we learn why the sound of poetry is so important to him.   If there’s a third book in the series, maybe Jack can help us learn more about Miss Stretchberry.     

It’s award time!  Last Monday, at the midwinter ALA convention, the book awards were announced.  I’m always especially interested in the Siebert Award for nonfiction and curious to see how it compares to the Orbis Pictus Award sponsored by the National Council of Teachers of English.  (I chair the Orbis Pictus Award these days, and more about that later.)  This year one book made both lists:  Kadir Nelson’s We Are the Ship: the story of Negro League Baseball.  It won the Siebert Award, and was an Orbis Pictus Honor Book.  It also was the Coretta Scott King Author Award Winner and Illustrator Honor Book.  Wow!  If you haven’t seen it, you are in for a treat.  The text is engaging, and the illustrations are beautiful.  Better yet, every kid in my library who has walked past the book has stopped and opened it.  It just invites you to come in and turn pages.   It has to be today’s BOOK OF THE DAY.