It's About Dogs by Tony Johnston and illustrated by Ted Rand

Okay so here is a smidge more bias showing, I picked this book out because theme was dogs, and I love dogs! The first thing that came to mind when I saw this book, aside from being excited about the subject, was what a great book for a student that didn't think they would like poetry but loves dogs. This would be one of those books that you could use as a platform for students who weren't sure about reading where you use the subject to entice your students. I know that when I was little I would have been all over this. Anyway, as the title would suggest, all of the poems are about dogs. They are not uniform though and I liked that about it. For example, some of the poems are only two lines and others go on for several stanzas. They are also about all different kinds of dogs in different situations. One of my favorites was this:

At The Pound

Eyes bore

deep

down to the

soul

speaking

what we cannot

bear

to know...

It was very sad, its true, but I liked it because like some of the other poems that I have read in this unit, it was not wordy but the picture was there. Reading it, I could just see those big, brown soulful eyes staring up at me. It's like I am there walking along that hallway with the cages, I can hear the dogs barking. Makes me want to give my puppy a big squeeze.

The library suggests ages 6 to 9 but really I think that these poems could be enjoyed by younger students too, even if they were just read to them. I believe that poetry is good for young students, even if they cant read it on their own yet, because it teaches about rhythm and rhyme. Plus it just sounds good to the ears, and even little ones know that.