The Maine Coon's Haiku by Michael J. Rosen

The Main Coon's Haiku and Other Poems for Cat Lovers is a 2015 new poetry book for children that I checked-out in preparation for the library's annual Poetry Workshop for Kids coming up Saturday, April 11th, from 2:00--4:00 p.m.  I enjoy facilitating this program for tweens each April in honor of National Poetry Month and am always amazed at the creative poems kids write.  We talk about haiku, originally a poetic form from Japan describing a moment in nature in 17 syllables (5-7-5) written in three lines.  Nowadays we take lots of poetic license in the writing of haiku as illustrated in this new collection of poems by Rosen who gave us The Cuckoo's Haiku in 2009.  Each of the twenty haiku are about a particular kind of cat.  For example, in the haiku entitled "Burmese," it goes like this:  "Only the blazing/forsythia blooms rival/the Burmese cat's gaze."  Another poem I enjoy is "Maine Coon" written in three simple lines of verse:  "Crouched before the couch,/suddenly, cat has all night/for just one sound--mouse." Haiku is a great form of poetry to teach because it's short and understandable for young readers and writers. Children can use their imagination to think of a scene in nature that for one brief moment is worthy of notice and describe it in a haiku.  It is personal, reflective, and quiet poetry that relies on eliciting  feelings, emotions, and wonder.  The illustrations in this book are by Lee White and are done digitally in muted colors.  A bonus in The Maine Coon's Haiku is the thumbnail description and image from the book of the breed.  Don't forget to register your 3rd-6th grader for the Poetry Workshop and we'll talk more about haiku and write some of our own.  In the meantime, check out this book on the New Book Shelves and celebrate National Poetry Month!