Cute crazy ( )

Children will enjoy the silliness of this book, and will laugh out loud at some of the poems. ( )

This book is a collection of a type of poem called a "senryu". Similar to a haiku, a senryu is a Japanese poem compiled of seventeen syllables written in the present tense and are usually about some aspect of human nature or human emotion. The poems themselves are accompanied with beautiful and detailed illustrations that emphasizes the poems playfulness with puns and words. One poem is "Freedom vanishes/ as the babysitter arrives.../kids are tied in nots". This book would make a great introduction to poetry because of the senryu's free verse style as well as teaching kids how to count syllables. It would also be a great way for educators to give lessons on synonyms, homonyms and homophones with the senryu's play on language. I would recommend this for second grade and up, first grade may be too young because the readers will need to have a larger vocabulary to understand the play on words. ( )

This is a great collection of Haiku which also acts as a play on words. A great book to engage students in poetry.

This collection of senryu, haiku's forgotten relative, is really well done. Since both J. Patrick Lewis and Paul Janeczko are well established as great children's poets, the resulting book is hardly a surprise. Great fun, and a cool form of poetry. ( )