Hate that Cat by Sharon Creech, 125 pp, RL 4
Published in 2008, Hate That Cat finds Jack a year older and Miss Stretchberry teaching a new grade - his! I didn't think that Sharon Creech could add to or improve upon Love That Dog, but she does, and how. Adding layers to Jack's story, Creech includes more poetry, poetic terminology, verse novels and, once again, Mr. Walter Dean Myers! As Jack, committed cat hater, writes after learning that Mr Myers owns a cat and that his grown son, Christopher Myers has written a book called Black Cat,
I felt like
Mr Walter Dean Myers'
whole family
must be in my brain.
Creech also introduces the character of Uncle Bill, a college professor who, besides being allergic to cats, has opinions about poetry and William Carlos Williams, specifically.
Uncle Bill says Mr WCW
is a "minor poet"
and
a "foe poet"
(later my dad explained
he meant faux
which means "fake")
and I said
"what about the
'so much depends upon'
poem
and the plum poems?
(which are stuck in my head
and I can say them from memory)
and Uncle Bill said
"Tuh! Overrated, highly
overrated!"
But, Uncle Bill is the least of Jack's worries. As he continues to expand and improve as a poet (in Hate That Cat Jack's poems are included in the back of the book with others by the likes of TS Eliot, Edgar Allan Poe and Tennyson) he begins to think more about words and for a very specific reason that becomes clear as the story unfolds.
OCTOBER 12
Something I have been wondering:
if you cannot hear
do words have no sounds
in your head?
Do you see
a
silent
movie?
Jack's mother and her deafness become an important plot thread in Hate That Cat, adding yet another layer of thought and understanding to the crafting of poems. There are cats in this book, but for me they took a backseat to the other things going on in Jack's life. Once again, I was moved and amazed at the way Creech can create such vivid characters and such a profound story with so few words. I was excited by the new ideas, poets and poems that influenced Jack's work and once again grateful to Creech for letting young readers know, through Jack and his poems, that it is perfectly acceptable to write in the style of poets you admire. I am going to end this review with a poem of Jack's to Miss Stretchberry, which also happens to be the exact sentiments I would express to Ms Creech if I were to write her a poem.
MAY 2
Thank you thank you thank you
for showing me all the books
of cat poems
and all the books
that tell a story
in
poems.
I never knew
a writer could do that-
tell a whole story
in
poems.
I already read the one
by Mr Robert Cormier
(alive?)
and next
by my bed is
the dust book by
Ms Karen Hesse
(alive?)
and underneath that one
is the Essie and Amber one
by Ms Vera B Williams
(alive?)
and on my bulletin board
is a list you gave me
of so many poets
whose books I can read
and also on my bulletin board
is the funny poem-picture
of the cat chair
by Mr Chris Raschka
(alive?)
and that poem
by Mr Lee Bennet Hopkins
(alive?)
about growing up
to
be
a
writer.
I now have
a treasure of words
in
my
room.
Here is a pertinent Spine Poem from 100 Scope Notes contributed by Elizabeth W.
