Return to Miss Stretchberry's class with Jack, the reluctant poet, who over the course of a year encounters new and challenging things like metaphors, alliterations, onomatopoeia, and one mean fat black cat!
The Newbery Medal-winning author of
Walk Two Moons,
Sharon Creech
,
introduced Jack in
Love That Dog
, a
New York Times
bestseller. Both
and
Hate That Cat
are approachable, funny, warm-hearted introductions to poetry told from the point of view of a very real kid wrestling with school assignments.
These books are fast reads that will be welcomed by middle graders as they too wonder how poetry and schoolwork connect with their interests and how to uncover their true voices.
In
, Jack is only trying to save that fat black cat stuck in the tree by his bus stop—but the cat scratches him instead! At school Miss Stretchberry begins teaching new poems, everything from William Carlos Williams to Valerie Worth to T.S. Eliot.
As the year progresses, Jack gradually learns to love that cat and finds new ways to express himself.