Hate That Cat Read online

(alive?)

  and on my bulletin board

  is a list you gave me

  of so many poets

  whose books I can read

  and also on my bulletin board

  is the funny poem-picture

  of the cat chair

  by Mr. Chris Raschka

  (alive?)

  and that poem

  by Mr. Lee Bennett Hopkins

  (alive?)

  about growing up

  to

  be

  a

  writer.

  I now have

  a treasure of words

  in

  my

  room.

  MAY 5

  SILENT SOUNDS OF MOM

  (INSPIRED BY MR. EDGAR ALLAN POE)

  BY JACK

  See her hands in the air

  waving here waving there!

  What flickering formations

  those compositions dare!

  How she sing sing sings

  in a swish and a bound

  bringing sound sound sound

  To the silence of the air

  to the silentabulation of the hush

  and the hums

  of the air, air, air, air,

  air, air, air—

  of the humming and the hushing

  of the air.

  MAY 9

  POETS’ DAY

  It was grandilicious

  finding pictures

  of so many poets

  and putting them

  on the wall in our classroom

  all those poets

  looking back at us

  and beside them

  some of their poems

  so many words

  and images in our heads

  and although I wish

  they were all alive

  and that Dwayne hadn’t written

  DEAD

  next to the dead ones

  their words are all still

  there

  waiting

  for

  someone

  to

  read

  them

  those ineffable effable

  words

  thrumming like

  purrrrrring

  in

  our

  heads.

  MAY 16

  LOVE THAT CAT

  (INSPIRED BY MR. WALTER DEAN MYERS)

  BY JACK

  Love that cat,

  like a bird loves to twitter

  I said I love that cat

  like a bird loves to twitter

  Love to call her in the morning

  love to call her

  “Hey there, Skitter McKitter!”

  MAY 19

  The fat black cat

  has been coming to our back door

  Moirrrr?

  she says

  as if asking a question

  I pour milk in the bowl

  and the fat black cat

  slurp slurps

  and then sits back

  staring at me

  her tail slapping slowly

  on the ground

  shisk shisk

  Moirrrr?

  Skitter

  skitters up

  and leaps forward

  her front paws

  occasionally landing

  in the bowl

  and

  the fat black cat

  licks the top

  of Skitter’s head

  and then turns

  and saunters away

  apparently

  satisfied.

  MAY 23

  Thank you for saying

  more nice things

  about me

  to my parents

  last night

  when we read our poems

  at school.

  My mother doesn’t usually

  come to these things

  because she can’t hear

  what’s going on

  but when you said

  I could sign for her

  this is what she

  said (signed) to me:

  “I love that Miss Stretchberry.”

  And although I was embarrassed

  to stand up in front of everyone

  and sign all those words

  for my mother—

  too many eyes on me—

  and it was very hard

  to keep up with everyone

  speaking so fast—

  when I saw my mother’s face

  it felt good to me

  it felt good to me

  it felt good

  to

  me.

  JUNE 5

  THIS IS JUST TO SAY

  I will listen

  for you

  I will hear

  all the sounds

  in the world

  all the

  delicious

  ineffable

  effable

  sounds

  all the

  thrumming

  and

  humming

  and

  tintinnabulating

  sounds

  I will hear

  all the sounds

  in the

  world

  and I will write them down

  so you

  can

  hear

  them

  too.

  BOOKS ON THE CLASS POETRY SHELF

  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, K
arla. 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).

  Excerpt from Love That Dog

  Read an excerpt

  from Sharon Creech’s

  companion novel

  LOVE

  THAT

  DOG

  DECEMBER 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.

  DECEMBER 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.

  JANUARY 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 sleeps—

  well!

  I think Mr. Robert Frost

  has a little

  too

  much

  time

  on his

  hands.

  JANUARY 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 else—

  like maybe his teacher—

  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 pasture—

  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?

  JANUARY 24

  We were going for a drive

  and my father said

  We won’t be gone long—

  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.

  JANUARY 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

&
nbsp; YOU COME TOO.

  About the Author

  Photo credit Lyle Rigg

  SHARON CREECH is the author of the Newbery Medal winner WALK TWO MOONS and the Newbery Honor Book THE WANDERER. Her other work includes the novels THE GREAT UNEXPECTED, THE UNFINISHED ANGEL, HATE THAT CAT, THE CASTLE CORONA, REPLAY, HEARTBEAT, GRANNY TORRELLI MAKES SOUP, RUBY HOLLER, LOVE THAT DOG, BLOOMABILITY, ABSOLUTELY NORMAL CHAOS, CHASING REDBIRD, and PLEASING THE GHOST, as well as three picture books: A FINE, FINE SCHOOL; FISHING IN THE AIR; and WHO’S THAT BABY? 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.

  Books by Sharon Creech

  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

  Credits

  Cover art © 2000 by William Steig

  Copyright

  Hate That Cat

  Copyright © 2008 by Sharon Creech

  All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

  www.harpercollinschildrens.com

  * * *

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data