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Lynn: We choose the books we blog for a variety of reasons.  Sometimes they are of outstanding literary quality or they have solid curricular connections.  Sometimes they are books especially popular with our teens or the focus group and sometimes they are books we just loved reading.  When ALL those qualities come together you’ve got something pretty special and that is the case with Guyku (Houghton 2010).

In his wonderful author’s note, Raczka notes that haiku is perfect for boys.  The form  is about nature which is where boys want to be, haiku are short and are written in the present tense and guys are interested in what is happening right now.  I think he is on to something here!  Raczka divides the book into sections representing the four seasons and his poetry is enchanting.  Hmmm – can you say enchanting about a boy book?  How about funny, true to life, and totally cool?  Peter Reynolds’ illustrations are wonderfully attuned to the poetry and the teamwork adds up to a winner of a book.  Our focus group – total boys by any definition  – love this book.  I’m not a boy but I love it too.  Here is one of our favorites:

If this puddle could

talk, I think it would tell me

to splash my sister.

Cindy: Haikus are a popular form for teachers to use in the classroom and one of my favorite things is to walk past a middle school classroom and see the finger counting going on when a whole class is writing haiku. Not everyone is ready for Basho, though, so Raczka’s collection will be an important addition to elementary and middle school libraries. Shel Silverstein fans will enjoy the pure boy humor here, too.  I like the way the soft color palette changes with the seasons. Librarians out there, have you tried scanning an illustrated poem and emailing it out to your staff to promote a new book? If your classrooms have smart boards or data projectors the teachers can share the poem and illustration with their students. Back in the day I used to make a photocopy and create a transparency for teachers to pass around for their overhead projectors. The times they are a changing. I collect book quotes about snow days and this guyku is a new favorite:

This entry was posted on Saturday, January 15th, 2011 at 1:03 pm and is filed under Gr. 2-4, Gr. 4-7, Nature, Nonfiction, Poetry, Twins' Thumbs Up - Age 7. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.