Jack moves from not wanting to write poems (that's for girls), to not understanding them, to writing his own. The whole book is free verse, written as a sort of diary to his teacher, Miss Stretchberry. From the beginning we are aware something is worrying Jack. The story comes out in bits and pieces, and we learn finally that Jack's beloved dog Sky has been killed by a car. The whole book is quirky, odd, humorous, very moving, and absolutely wonderful! Here is a child learning to write out his own grief and sadness with a teacher who understands and is supportive. Real poems from real authors are written into the story - Robert Frost, William Blake, Arnold Adoff, S.C. Rigg, and Walter Dean Myers - the latter comes to Jack's school to read his work and is instrumental in Jack's being able to write his own therapeutic poems. The book is short (I read it in about twenty minutes), but so much is packed in with great subtlety. Excellent!