Poems with Lois Letchford and Matthew: The Pet - Charles Tomson

13 Nov 2020 · 2 min

Watch on YouTube

2:14

In this short YouTube video, author and literacy advocate Lois Letchford introduces a poetry reading session with her student Matthew. Lois, known for her memoir Reversed: A Memoir of a Literacy Problem Solver, invites Matthew to read his poem titled “The Pet of Dragon.” Matthew narrates a whimsical story about using his allowance to purchase a fantastical dragon‑like pet from a pet shop, describing its fiery eyes, scales, wings, and the imagined adventures it will enable. After Matthew finishes, Lois praises his performance, highlighting the confidence and creativity displayed. The video serves both as a showcase of student poetry and as an example of supportive adult mentorship in literacy development.

Hello, I'm Lois Letchford, author of the book Reversed: A Memoir of a Literacy Problem Solver, sharing poems today, and Matthew, my student, is reading them. Over to you, Matthew.
I am Matthew, and I'm going to be reading the Pet of Dragon poems. My mum gave me some money to buy myself a treat. So long. So long it wasn't sweets. So off I went to go spend it. I wandered around the shops.
I couldn't find anything to buy.
And so something made me stop. There in the pet shop window, I saw a flash of fire, a scale of Scales and some burning eyes, and I knew my heart desired. I could— I gave the man my money. He handed me a lead. Then I walked out with the— out of the pet shop with the only pet I need, and a pet who has wings and gleaming fangs. Who with scales, with skin that's shiny green, with claws and a tail longer than any tails you've seen. A pet who will fly, whose breath is orangey flame, whose both ears hiss with steam. And who will fly me to the land of clouds and the land of dream. But first, I better go home, and I hope it's okay with my mom. I wonder— I will— I hope my mom will like my pet. I wonder what she will say.
Brilliant reading!