First Chapter Plus May 2023 Issue

THE BAREFOOT LIBRARIAN Then I fell in love with Sharon Creech’s Love That Dog. Published in 2001, this tells the story of a young boy who finds his voice in poetry with the support and encouragement of an extraordinary teacher. Now books in verse for children and YA are widely published, and in more recent years, I have read a wide variety of books in verse, including Rez Dogs, They Call Me Guero: A Border Kid’s Poems, Brown Girl Dreaming, Ain’t Burned All the Bright, and Long Way Down, to name only a few – all expertly written. I think the variety of formats now found in children's literature makes books more accessible to children of many learning styles and reading abilities. This is a wonderful trend, and with books being removed from classrooms and libraries at an alarming rate, we need to be able to appeal to in many ways to children to get them to seek out and pick up a book to read.

Author: Sharon Creech This story is about an exceptional teacher who sees the extraordinary promise in one of her students. She nurtures and coaxes his writing talent throughout the school year by encouraging him to write poetry. Poem by poem, the life and personality of the student begins to emerge. By the end of the book, the reader and the main character realize that everyone has potential. Brilliantly constructed with a bonus - poems the teacher uses to inspire her students are also included. Love That Dog

Eve Panzer reviews books for Reader Views Kids as well as her own business, Barefoot Librarian. Monthly she publishes the Barefoot Librarian Newsletter. She sells children’s books published byBarefoot Books and Usborne Books & More at book fairs, educational conferences, community events, and online. She earned her Masters in Library and Information Science from the University of Texas in Austin and worked as a school librarian before retiring to start her own business. barefootlibrarian.com

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