Day: January 11, 2011

Guyku: A Year of Haiku for Boys

| Tasha

guyku

Guyku: A Year of Haiku for Boys by Bob Raczka, illustrated by Peter H. Reynolds

A brilliant combination of haiku poems, clever humor, and engaging illustrations, this book is sure to appeal to its target audience of guys and also to girls.  Celebrating the small things in life, each haiku takes a moment in time and then offers a grin to the reader.  The poems are arranged in seasons, fitting because so many of them are about nature and a boy’s relationship with it.  Whether it is flying a kite, skipping rocks, leaf piles or snowball fights, children will relate easily to these vignettes about the things that make life fun. 

Raczka’s haiku are light-hearted and enjoyable.  Thanks to the brief nature of the format, the poems are easily shared aloud.  Nicely, the poems stand on their own or work together as a larger piece of writing.  Reynolds’ art is equally engaging.  It too has a great humor about it but also a sense that a moment is being captured. 

A celebration of seasons, play and boyhood, this book is a treat.  If librarians are looking for something to take with them for summer reading program visits, the summer haiku here would make a great thing to share with boys of many ages.  Appropriate for ages 6-9.

Reviewed from library copy.

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Not Me!: A Jolly Mess of a Book

| Tasha

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Not Me! by Nicola Killen

Messes and small children go together in this book.  Someone has been making a series of messes, but when each child is asked, they reply with a merry “Not me!”  Readers will immediately know the truth though, because the clues are there to tie that mischievous child to the mess that surrounds them.  Add in one small dog, and the messiness is complete until it’s time to clean up…

A book with only a few words per page that focus more on the visual cues than on the words themselves.  The text asks who has made that specific mess and then has the reply of the child denying that it was them.  The repetition makes for a rollicking pace that is great fun to read aloud and is perfect for even the smallest of toddlers.   Killen’s illustrations are done in mixed media with a combination of stencils, collage, and stamping.  The effect is sweet and jolly.  She uses primarily pastels with bright pops of primary colors. 

This is a book that children will love and will ask to have read to them again and again.  Who wouldn’t want to read it?  Not me!  Appropriate for ages 1-3.

Reviewed from copy received from Egmont.

Also reviewed by The Book Chook.