Walter Dean Myers' poem, "Love That Boy", has been hanging on my bulletin board for the past three or four years. It's at eye level, so I probably glance at it a dozen times a day. I love that poem--there is so much warmth and exuberance in it. (The poem is reprinted at the back of Love That Dog.) One day as I glanced at this poem, I started thinking about the much-loved boy in Myers' poem. I wondered what that boy might love. Maybe a pet? A dog? Maybe also a teacher? And whoosh--out jumped Jack's voice. When I wrote this story, I'd only met Walter Dean Myers once. I suspected early on in writing this story that Myers' poem would be important to Jack, but I was surprised when Walter Dean Myers himself entered the stoy. I was worried about that--not sure if I could have a living person as a character in my story. I tried to get Walter Dean Myers out of the story, but his absence left a big, empty hole. The whole story pivots on his poem and his influence on Jack. When I finally sent the story to my editor, she agreed to send it on to Walter Dean Myers, too, to be sure he'd be comfortable with appearing in this story. Walter Dean Myers was gracious and kind. He was shy about being the hero in a book, but I think he could see why he was needed in this particular story, and he gave the book his blessings. During the time I was writing this story, I was also interviewed by a magazine.

The magazine editor's name was Stretchberry. It seemed a perfect name for Jack's teacher, and so I asked her permission to use it. In the story, Jack refers to a poem shaped like an apple and a poem shaped like a house. When I finished the book, I wanted to include poems that Jack refers to, but I hadn't ever seen a poem shaped like an apple or a house. And so I wrote one. That's the Apple Poem in the back of the book, and S. C. Rigg is another of my names. Did you find the worm in the apple?

© Sharon Creech