Hi, Koo!: A Year of Seasons – February 25, 2014 Author: Jon J Muth | Language: English | ISBN:
0545166683 | Format: EPUB
Hi, Koo!: A Year of Seasons – February 25, 2014 Description
From School Library Journal
K-Gr 4—Muth, in his author's note, says "haiku is like an instant captured in words." Indeed, that is evident in 26 poems depicting images across four seasons, starting with fall. Muth's well-known panda, Koo, is depicted on a white background with just a touch of blue sky, looking up at swirling leaves: "Autumn/are you dreaming /of new clothes?" Koo, who begins alone, is soon joined by two children for the rest of the seasons. In the spring, birds alight on Koo, the girl, and on a branch held by the boy: "Quiet and still/long enough/for birds to make nests?" The color palette for the contemplative watercolors changes through the seasons, with a red-striped scarf and cardinal contrasting against the panda and the white snow. When a crown of snow falls on Koo he exclaims, "King!/my crown a gift/from a snowy branch." Muth's author's note also explains his variation from the traditional five-seven–five poetic form and invites readers to follow "an alphabetical path through the book by following the capitalized words in each haiku." While others haiku picture books include Andrew Clements's Dogku (S & S, 2007), Bob Raczka's Guyku (Houghton Harcourt, 2010), and Rita Gray's One Big Rain (Charlesbridge, 2010), no previous titles so cohesively capture the naturalistic spirit of Japanese haiku. Even readers who are not typically interested in poetry will be captivated by Muth's artistry in both words and images.—Julie R. Ranelli, Queen Anne's County Free Library, Stevensville, MD
From Booklist
First introduced in Zen Ties (2008) as Stillwater the panda’s nephew, Koo is alone in the narrative world of this verse collection, until a boy and girl from the neighborhood knock on his door. They share good times throughout the seasons, whether throwing snowballs, reading aloud to sparrows, or skipping stones. And sometimes Koo enjoys reflective moments alone, “becoming so quiet / Zero sound / only breath.” These very short poems, ranging from fresh to poignant to prosaic, are enhanced by the beautiful watercolor-and-ink illustrations on every page. Reflecting the brevity and imagery of the verse, the spare fall and winter pictures seem particularly fine, while their relative simplicity contrasts effectively with the profusion of color in the spring and summer scenes. Besides pointing out the subtle trail of alphabetically arranged capital letters in each poem throughout the book, the author’s note expresses Muth’s rationale for not restricting himself to “the five-seven-five syllable pattern that many of us grew up learning haiku must be.” Haiku or not, this collection is worth reading. Preschool-Grade 3. --Carolyn Phelan
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- Age Range: 4 - 8 years
- Hardcover: 32 pages
- Publisher: Scholastic Press (February 25, 2014)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0545166683
- ISBN-13: 978-0545166683
- Product Dimensions: 9.8 x 8.6 x 0.5 inches
- Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
I have a colleague who is mighty careful when it comes to haiku. She’s Japanese-American herself, and one thing she simply cannot stand is when someone takes a set of words, slaps them into five/seven/five syllable lines, and then calls the result “a haiku”. Traditional haiku focuses on nature and how we, as humans, relate to it. So what happens when 5/7/5 gets taken out of the equation entirely? Author/illustrator Jon J. Muth is no stranger to children’s picture books that challenge the reader. And though he’s written many a book touching on the concept of “Zen”, straight up poetry has rarely been his bag. All that changes with the publication of Hi, Koo!: A Year of Seasons. Gutsy in its quiet, contemplative way, Muth doesn’t follow the same old, same old poetry model. Maybe that’s part of the reason I like it so very much.
Twenty-six haikus spotlight four different seasons. In the book, a panda cub named Koo and two human siblings explore fall, winter, spring and autumn in a myriad of different ways. From a snowball on a stop sign (“are we in trouble?”) to act of accidentally killing a bug (“afterward / feeling alone and Sad”) the haikus do double duty as both poems and, depending on which word is capitalized, a tour of the alphabet. Inspired by his own young twins, Muth, with seeming effortlessness, brings to young readers a fellow traveler.
Poetry is dead. I’m sorry. That sounds a bit bleak. Allow me to rephrase that sentence. Poetry for children is dead. Nope . . . nope that still sounds bleak, doesn’t it? Well it’s not true anyway . . . yet. But you see I’ve been watching the number of works of poetry published for kids the last few years and I swear that each season we get fewer and fewer and fewer. I believe a combination of different factors is to blame.
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