Hate That Cat (6 page)
Authors: Sharon Creech
OOKS
ON
THE
C
LASS
P
OETRY
S
HELF
Adedjouma, Davida, ed.
The Palm of My Heart: Poetry by African American Children
, illustrated by Gregory Christie (Lee & Low, 1996).
Adoff, Arnold.
Street Music: City Poems
, illustrated by Karen Barbour (HarperCollins, 1995).
Alarcón, Francisco X.
Iguanas in the Snow and Other Winter Poems/Iguanas en la nieve y otros poemas de invierno
, illustrated by Maya Christina Gonzalez (Children's Book Press, 2001).
Bryan, Ashley.
Sing to the Sun
(HarperCollins, 1992).
Cormier, Robert.
Frenchtown Summer
(Delacorte, 1999).
Eliot, T. S.
Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats
, illustrated by Edward Gorey (Harcourt, 1982).
Esbensen, Barbara Juster.
Swing Around the Sun: Poems
, illustrated by Cheng-Khee Chee, Janice Lee Porter, Mary GrandPré, and Stephen Gammell (Carolrhoda, 2003).
Fleischman, Paul.
Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices
, illustrated by Eric Beddows (HarperCollins, 1988).
Frost, Robert.
The Poetry of Robert Frost
, edited by Edward Connery Lathem (Holt, Rinehart, 1969).
George, Kristine O'Connell.
Little Dog Poems
, illustrated by June Otani (Clarion, 1999).
Giovanni, Nikki.
The Sun Is So Quiet
, illustrated by Ashley Bryan (Henry Holt, 1996).
Greenfield, Eloise.
Honey, I Love and Other Love Poems
, illustrated by Diane and Leo Dillon (HarperCollins, 1978).
Greenfield, Eloise.
Night on Neighborhood Street
, illustrated by Jan Spivey Gilchrist (Dial Books, 1991).
Greenfield, Eloise.
Under the Sunday Tree
, paintings by Mr. Amos Ferguson (HarperCollins, 1988).
Grimes, Nikki.
A Pocketful of Poems
, illustrated by Javaka Steptoe (Clarion, 2001).
Hesse, Karen.
Out of the Dust
(Scholastic, 1997).
Hopkins, Lee Bennett.
Been to Yesterdays
, illustrated by Charlene Rendeiro (Wordsong/Boyds Mill, 1995).
Hopkins, Lee Bennett.
Good Rhymes, Good Times
, illustrated by Frané Lessac (HarperCollins, 1995).
Hopkins, Lee Bennett.
Pass the Poetry, Please!
3rd ed. (HarperCollins, 1998).
Hughes, Langston.
The Dream Keeper and Other Poems
, illustrated by Brian Pinkney (Knopf, 1994).
Janeczko, Paul B., ed.
A Poke in the I
, illustrated by Chris Raschka (Candlewick, 2001).
Janeczko, Paul B., ed.
Stone Bench in an Empty Park
, photographed by Henri Silberman (Orchard, 2000).
Koch, Kenneth. Rose,
Where Did You Get That Red? Teaching Great Poetry to Children
(Vintage Books, 1990).
Kuskin, Karla.
The Sky Is Always in the Sky
, illustrated by Isabelle Dervaux (Laura Geringer/HarperCollins, 1998).
Kuskin, Karla.
Toots the Cat
, illustrated by Lisze Bechtold (Henry Holt, 2005).
Levy, Constance.
Splash! Poems of Our Watery World
, illustrated by David Soman (Orchard, 2002).
Little, Jean.
Hey World, Here I Am!
, illustrated by Sue Truesdell (HarperTrophy, 1990).
Livingston, Myra Cohn, ed.
Cat Poems
, illustrated by Trina Schart Hyman (Holiday House, 1987).
Livingston, Myra Cohn.
Cricket Never Does: A Collection of Haiku and Tanka
, illustrated by Kees de Kiefte (McElderry Books, 1997).
Livingston, Myra Cohn.
I Am Writing a Poem About . . . : A Game of Poetry
(McElderry Books, 1997).
Moore, Geoffrey, ed.
The Penguin Book of American Verse
(Penguin, 1983).
Myers, Christopher.
Black Cat
(Scholastic, 1999).
Myers, Walter Dean.
Brown Angels: An Album of Pictures and Verse
(HarperCollins, 1993).
Nye, Naomi Shihab, ed.
Salting the Ocean: 100 Poems by Young Poets
, illustrated by Ashley Bryan (Greenwillow, 2000).
Nye, Naomi Shihab, ed.
The Tree Is Older Than You Are
(Simon & Schuster, 1995).
Sandburg, Carl.
Grassroots: Poems by Carl Sandburg
, illustrated by Wendell Minor (Browndeer, 1998).
Silverstein, Shel.
A Light in the Attic
(HarperCollins, 1981).
Sones, Sonya.
Stop Pretending: What Happened When My Big Sister Went Crazy
(HarperTempest, 2001).
Thomas, Joyce Carol.
Brown Honey in Broomwheat Tea
, illustrated by Floyd Cooper (HarperCollins, 1993).
Williams, Vera B.
Amber Was Brave, Essie Was Smart
(Greenwillow/HarperCollins, 2001).
Woodson, Jacqueline.
Locomotion
(Putnam, 2003).
Worth, Valerie.
all the small poems and fourteen more
, illustrated by Natalie Babbitt (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1994).
Yolen, Jane.
Bird Watch: A Book of Poetry
, illustrated by Ted Lewin (Putnam, 1990).
Love That Dog
Read an excerpt
from Sharon Creech's
companion novel
THAT
DOG
ECEMBER
4
Why do you want
to type up what I wrote
about reading
the
small
poems?
It's not a poem.
Is it?
I guess you can
put it on the board
if you want to
but don't put
my name
on it
in case
other people
think
it's not a poem.
ECEMBER
13
I guess it does
look like a poem
when you see it
typed up
like that.
But I think maybe
it would look better
if there was more space
between the lines.
Like how I wrote it
the first time.
And I liked the picture
of the yellow dog
you put beside it.
But that's not how
my yellow dog
looked.
ANUARY
10
I really really really
did NOT get
the pasture poem
you read today.
I mean:
somebody's going out
to the pasture
to clean the spring
and to get
the little tottery calf
while he's out there
and he isn't going
to be gone long
and he wants YOU
(who is YOU?)
to come too.
I mean REALLY.
And you said that
Mr. Robert Frost
who wrote
about the pasture
was also the one
who wrote about
those snowy woods
and the miles to go
before he sleepsâ
well!
I think Mr. Robert Frost
has a little
too
much
time
on his
hands.
ANUARY
17
Remember the wheelbarrow poem
you read
the first week
of school?
Maybe the wheelbarrow poet
was just
making a picture
with words
and
someone elseâ
like maybe his teacherâ
typed it up
and then people thought
it was a poem
because
it looked like one
typed up like that.
And maybe
that's the same thing
that happened with
Mr. Robert Frost.
Maybe he was just
making pictures with words
about the snowy woods
and the pastureâ
and his teacher
typed them up
and they
looked
like poems
so people thought
they were poems.
Like how you did
with the blue-car things
and reading-the-small-poems thing.
On the board
typed up
they look like
poems
and the other kids
are looking at them
and they think
they really are
poems
and they
are all saying
Who wrote that?
ANUARY
24
We were going for a drive
and my father said
We won't be gone longâ
You come too
and so I went
and we drove and drove
until we stopped at a
red brick building
with a sign
in blue letters
ANIMAL PROTECTION SHELTER.
And inside we walked
down a long cement path
past cages
with all kinds of
dogs
big and small
fat and skinny
some of them
hiding in the corner
but most of them
bark-bark-barking and
jumping up
against the wire cage
as we walked past
as if they were saying
Me! Me! Choose me!
I'm the best one!
And that's where we saw
the yellow dog
standing against the cage
with his paws curled
around the wire
and his long red tongue
hanging out
and his big black eyes
looking a little sad
and his long tail
wag-wag-wagging
as if he were saying
Me me me! Choose me!
And we did.
We chose him.
And in the car
he put his head
against my chest
and wrapped his paws
around my arm
as if he were saying
Thank you thank you thank you.
And the other dogs
in the cages
get killed dead
if nobody chooses them.
ANUARY
31
Yes
you can type up
what I wrote
about my yellow dog
but leave off the part
about the other dogs
getting killed dead
because that's too sad.
And don't put
my name
on it
please.
And maybe
it would look good
on yellow paper.
And maybe
the title
should be
YOU COME TOO.
Photo credit Lyle Rigg
SHARON CREECH
is the author of the Newbery Medal winner W
ALK
T
WO
M
OONS
and the Newbery Honor Book T
HE
W
ANDERER
. Her other work includes the novels T
HE
G
REAT
U
NEXPECTED
, T
HE
U
NFINISHED
A
NGEL
, H
ATE
T
HAT
C
AT
, T
HE
C
ASTLE
C
ORONA
, R
EPLAY
, H
EARTBEAT
, G
RANNY
T
ORRELLI
M
AKES
S
OUP
, R
UBY
H
OLLER
, L
OVE
T
HAT
D
OG
, B
LOOMABILITY
, A
BSOLUTELY
N
ORMAL
C
HAOS
, C
HASING
R
EDBIRD
, and P
LEASING
THE
G
HOST
, as well as three picture books: A F
INE
, F
INE
S
CHOOL
; F
ISHING
IN
THE
A
IR
; and W
HO'S
T
HAT
B
ABY
? Ms. Creech and her husband live in Maine. You can visit her online at
www.sharoncreech.com
.
Discover great authors, exclusive offers, and more at
hc.com
.
WALK TWO MOONS
ABSOLUTELY NORMAL CHAOS
PLEASING THE GHOST
CHASING REDBIRD
BLOOMABILITY
THE WANDERER
FISHING IN THE AIR
LOVE THAT DOG
A FINE, FINE SCHOOL
RUBY HOLLER
GRANNY TORRELLI MAKES SOUP
HEARTBEAT
WHO'S THAT BABY?
REPLAY
THE CASTLE CORONA
THE UNFINISHED ANGEL
