Intelligently written haikus with wonderful illustrations of a variety of animals. ( )

Summary:
If Not For The Cat is a series of Haiku poems about different animals. None of the poems actually call the animals by name but instead give clues as to the type of animal. It also includes illustration of each animal.

Personal Reaction:
This is not my favorite children's poetry but I do think it would be a good way to introduce a unit on Haiku poems. I also think it would be good as a beginning introduction to a poetry unit, as the poems are brief and simple.

Classroom Extensions:
1.) Ask the students to pick an animal that is not included in the book and write their own Haiku about it.
2.) Ask the students to write another haiku about an object of their choosing. However, this poem cannot include the name of the item. Once they are done have them share their poems and allow the other students to guess which object they were referencing. ( )

A beautiful collection of haiku poems, each describing an animal without naming it, creating a riddle. Each page's illustration paints the picture to support the words, and a "Who is Who" index provided names the creatures.
An excerpt: "How foolish I am./Why am I drawn to the flame/Which extinguishes?"
Beautifully illustrated with watercolors and india ink brush drawings. Provides an interactive experience to engage children in poetry.

A creature whispers:If not for the cat,And the scarcity of cheese,I could be content.Who is this creature?What does it like to eat?Can you solve the riddle?Seventeen haiku composed by master poet Jack Prelutsky and illustrated by renowned artist Ted Rand ask you to think about seventeen favorite residents of the animal kingdom in a new way. On these glorious and colorful pages you will meet a mouse, a skunk, a beaver, a hummingbird, ants, bald eagles, jellyfish, and many others. Who is who? The answer is right in front of you. But how can you tell? Think and wonder and look and puzzle it out!

Summary:
This book of Haikus is about different animals. Because Haikus are usually very short, it was like a guessing games as each ones described an animal with only descriptive words but never gave the name of the animal.

My Personal Reaction:
I thought this was a really cool way to teach young children about Haikus. When I was in school the Haikus were kind of short and left me wondering how in the world is that poetry. I like that this kind of made poetry into a guessing game not only helping them to understand the type of poetry, but also that it helped them recognize and utilize the descriptive words in trying to guess the animal.

Classroom Extension Ideas:
1. As a class, we could each write a haiku about our favorite animal and play a guessing game as each student tries to figure out the other's animal.
2. We could compare this to other forms of poetry and list the differences in each. ( )