105 Ways to Give a Book

Poetry Friday: Gone To The Dogs

Once I Ate a PieFor Poetry Friday I present Once I Ate a Pie, by Patricia MacLachlan and Emily MacLachlan Charest.

Question: How cute is a mother-daughter writing team?
Answer: Not as cute as this book.

Now, I’m no dog lover. Give me a cat any day. But these dogs are hard to resist in their general dogginess. They chew things, they bark at everything, they steal things of the table. And still we love them. Well, you love them. I kind of tolerate them, but you get my point. The breeds of dogs are portrayed in ways that define them; therefore the German Shepherd has this poem:
I want my people in a group. Like sheep.
When someone is in the bathroom, I open the door.
“Are you all right?”
They are NOT happy.
I take them back to the others.

When they go anywhere,
I am watching.
I am the herder.
The poems are cute and the thirteen dogs are captured in their essence by the wonderful paintings of Katy Schneider. I only wish they had named the breeds and maybe a little bit about them at the end of the book. It would have completed the experience of the poetry to see that in the poem about Greyhounds, calling them runners in fact relates to them being very fast and having been raced. I mean, I know that, and I assume many others know that, but it might make it easier for kids to connect the poems with the specific dogs.

Overall, this is a book that can be enjoyed by dog lovers, but cat lovers can give it a try too.

Some other Poetry Friday posts (since someone went on vacation and isn’t keeping track):Just a few, but it’s still early — especially on the West coast — and it’s summer. I’ll be back with more listings later, after a visit to the pool with my kids (and a good book).

Edited to add: I’m back with a few more Poetry Friday posts. Not that I intend this listing thing to be a habit. Let’s just make that clear.Before you head out to the lake or the beach or the mountains tomorrow morning, stop by Semicolon and link to a book review from this past week. I’ll be heading to work on Saturday, so yay for me.

7 comments:

Kelly said...

You are so funny, MR. Maybe we should elect you to be the Poetry friday linker? What do you think? Great idea, no?

Anonymous said...

So were daschunds in the poetry book? I have two spoiled ones and one diluted tortoise shell cat.

MotherReader said...

There were NO daschunds in the book, which is a shame. That is the only dog I could imagine myself owning. I have a tortie too, but not diluted just crazy.

I'm nominating, um, anyone else as the Poetry Friday linker. But never let it be said that I'm not a team player.

Little Willow said...

Yay kitties!

I have this:
http://slayground.livejournal.com/118888.html

Becky said...

Thanks for picking up the Friday slack and all the links to everyone, MR, and for including Farm School! And especially for the bonus book review. I've got some junior dog and cat lovers who would enjoy Pie...

Anonymous said...

And I had this:
http://susanwrites.livejournal.com/51031.html

Bright and early west coast time.

Thanks for doing the round up for us!

Anonymous said...

I agree. We love this book in our library. Mr. Chewy (or whatever the dog who eats the pie is named) is my personal favorite.