Since I wrote about Jon Muth's lovely Hi, Koo! haiku book last time, I wanted to write about another beautiful children's book today: My First Book of Haiku Poems by Esperanza Ramirez-Christensen, with art by Tracy Gallup. It's not available at the Archive, but there are abundant used copies at bookfinder.com. There are a lot of not-good haiku books for children out there (I won't be writing about the bad books here, I promise) – but this book is absolutely, completely exquisite.
As the subtitle explains – Classic Poems by Japanese Haiku Masters – you will find poems here by Issa, Shiki, Gomei, Onitsura, Shou, Seishi, Buson, Basho, and Ryota, all carefully selected for young readers. On each 2-page spread you see the haiku poem in English, in Japanese, and also romanized. There are very helpful and thought-provoking, creative questions at the bottom of the page, encouraging readers to see and understand the poem with the help of the art. On the right-hand side of each spread has a full-page work of art, all very dream-like and full of emotion. (If you like Chagall, you will love this art!) Look at this fox in the mist:
There's also a 2-page spread at the end with a lovely illustration and space for the reader to write in their own haiku, with writing prompts at the bottom of the page.
The book is longer than the usual 32-page children's book; there are 48 pages, so that means there are 20 poems and illustrations, plus the illustration at the end that is provided as a haiku-writing prompt. Ingeniously, they have included all 21 illustrations in a small format for the book's endpapers, as you can see here:
In the back of the book there are brief biographies of the poets, along with a note from the author / translator about her creative process for the book, focusing on how she and the artist worked on the poetry and the art together.
As with Jon Muth, I cannot say enough good things about this book! The author is an emerita professor of Japanese literature at the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor). How wonderful that she applied her talents to this beautiful book for children! And I see she did her master's degree at UC Berkeley: I feel connected!
Meanwhile, the website of the artist, Tracy Gallup, is full of treasures. Here is the welcome image at the site: I see a rabbit puppet AND a fox puppet. So gorgeous!
