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Overview
A creature whispers:
If not for the cat,
And the scarcity of cheese,
I could be content.
Who is this creature?
What does it like to eat?
Can you solve the riddle?
Seventeen haiku composed by master poet Jack Prelutsky and illustrated by renowned artist Ted Rand ask you to think about seventeen favorite residents of the animal kingdom in a new way. On these glorious and colorful pages you will meet a mouse, a skunk, a beaver, a hummingbird, ants, bald eagles, jellyfish, and many others. Who is who? The answer is right in front of you. But how can you tell? Think and wonder and look and puzzle it out!
Haiku-like poems describe a variety of animals.
Synopsis
A creature whispers:
If not for the cat,
And the scarcity of cheese,
I could be content.
Who is this creature?
What does it like to eat?
Can you solve the riddle?
Seventeen haiku composed by master poet Jack Prelutsky and illustrated by renowned artist Ted Rand ask you to think about seventeen favorite residents of the animal kingdom in a new way. On these glorious and colorful pages you will meet a mouse, a skunk, a beaver, a hummingbird, ants, bald eagles, jellyfish, and many others. Who is who? The answer is right in front of you. But how can you tell? Think and wonder and look and puzzle it out!
Publishers Weekly
At once elegant and droll, this fine collaboration spotlights various animals through 17 haiku, each set against a stunning full-spread, close-range illustration of the featured creature in its natural habitat. Author and artist tip their hats to Eastern traditions with the poetic form and with mix-media compositions that echo Chinese silkscreen. The book takes its title from the first line of the inaugural poem ("If not for the cat,/ And the scarcity of cheese,/ I could be content"), and Rand's (Here Are My Hands) wry image of a mouse looking out from the darkness that dominates the spread, safe behind the wall, to the whiskered snout of a cat perched by the mouse hole, provides ideal accompaniment. By contrast, the brilliantly lit scene that follows highlights a glorious tangle of nasturtiums visited by a hummingbird. Prelutsky's (Scranimals) versatile verse adopts a pleasing range of first-person voices. Against a symphony of blues, the words of the jellyfish emulate its motion as it seems to swim across the spread ("Boneless, translucent,/ We undulate, undulate,/ Gelatinously"). A moth asks ponderously, "How foolish I am./ Why am I drawn to the flame/ Which extinguishes?"; Rand visually links the color of the moth with the halo around the candle, making its attraction seem inevitable. Though it's not difficult to identify the critters (specified on the final page), younger children especially will have fun naming each species. Deceptive in their simplicity, these haiku will send aspiring wordsmiths off to try their own. Ages 3-up. (Oct.) Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.
Editorials
Publishers Weekly
At once elegant and droll, this fine collaboration spotlights various animals through 17 haiku, each set against a stunning full-spread, close-range illustration of the featured creature in its natural habitat. Author and artist tip their hats to Eastern traditions with the poetic form and with mix-media compositions that echo Chinese silkscreen. The book takes its title from the first line of the inaugural poem ("If not for the cat,/ And the scarcity of cheese,/ I could be content"), and Rand's (Here Are My Hands) wry image of a mouse looking out from the darkness that dominates the spread, safe behind the wall, to the whiskered snout of a cat perched by the mouse hole, provides ideal accompaniment. By contrast, the brilliantly lit scene that follows highlights a glorious tangle of nasturtiums visited by a hummingbird. Prelutsky's (Scranimals) versatile verse adopts a pleasing range of first-person voices. Against a symphony of blues, the words of the jellyfish emulate its motion as it seems to swim across the spread ("Boneless, translucent,/ We undulate, undulate,/ Gelatinously"). A moth asks ponderously, "How foolish I am./ Why am I drawn to the flame/ Which extinguishes?"; Rand visually links the color of the moth with the halo around the candle, making its attraction seem inevitable. Though it's not difficult to identify the critters (specified on the final page), younger children especially will have fun naming each species. Deceptive in their simplicity, these haiku will send aspiring wordsmiths off to try their own. Ages 3-up. (Oct.) Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.Children's Literature
This is a book of haiku poems written by the popular children's poet, Jack Prelutsky. Haiku is an ancient Japanese poetry form using only seventeen syllables arranged in three lines of text. Haikus are usually nature-related, and poems in this collection comply by using such creatures as jellyfish, elephants, and skunks as the subjects of each poem. Some of the poems are quite simple. The haiku about the elephant, for example, reads: "We are wrinkled hulks; With astonishing noses; Our ears block the sun." Others demand more complex thought, such as the haiku about the jellyfish which reads: "Boneless, translucent; We undulate, undulate; Gelatinously." All of the poems, though, display a command of the language expected of Prelutsky. Ted Rand's illustrations are as diverse as the poems. Sometimes his pictures are forthright and realistic as when his elephant's ear really does block out the sun. At other times, his paintings are more impressionistic as when an undulating blue jellyfish floats placidly across the page. Both the poetry and the illustrations show the work of master artists and combine to make a lovely and thought-provoking book. While this book is a picture book, the language of much of it, with words like gelatinously, raucously, and nasturtium, will probably be beyond the normal picture-book set. However, this is one of those relatively rare picture books that is appropriate for older students. Teachers wishing to introduce poetry, especially haiku, to their middle and upper grade students will find this book to be a gem. 2004, Greenwillow Books, Ages 8 up.—Sheryl O'Sullivan