Love that Dog

Love that Dog by Sharon Creech was one of the most interesting novels I have ever read. The whole story is written in poem form. Though it is a children's novel, I believe there are many underlying themes that can pertain to an adult's life as well. A few of the messages I got from the book were that there should not be a certain gender role expectation that girls or boys feel they should follow. Also, that there are wonderful resources such as poetry writing that can help alleviate pain. I find it ironic because these two messages that spoke to me in this novel were two of the messages I believe my senior year AP Literature teacher, Mr. Jordan. wanted us to take out of his class. Mr. Jordan was an excellent teacher who first introduced these messages to me in depth. Mr. Jordan wanted us to be aware of gender role expectations, so we read and analyzed The Doll House. I am so thankful that I was apart of such meaningful conversation about gender role expectation because that is an issue I think people subconsciously do, but can ultimately have negative consequences. The knowledge I have learned about gender role expectation is something I want to make sure I practice in my class room as a future teacher. I want my kids to be aware that it is ok for boys to enjoy writing and put emotion into it, or for girls to enjoy science fiction books. Furthermore, Mr. Jordan did an excellent job exemplifying how writing can be therapeutic. He even had us do some writings whether it was prose or poetry about something that has caused us pain. I remember that year growing apart from my best friend. I felt confused and upset a lot of my senior year because I felt like there was some part of me missing. The writing activities Mr. Jordan had us do help me release my emotions. Though, I was not able to solve my problem, it was soothing to write about it, just like the little boy in Love that Dog wrote about his dog Sky dieing.