Through the Looking Glass Children's Book Reviews
H Is For Haiku: A Treasury of Haiku from A to Z
Illustrator: Sawsan Chalabi
Poetry
For ages 6 to 8
Penny Candy Books, 2018 ISBN: 978-0998799971
Many of us live in a world that is fast. We move from one thing to the next without pause; we rush ever onwards and the end result is that we miss so many “small” moments that are beautiful in their simplicity. We don’t see the little bird sitting on the window ledge. We pass by the flowering lilac bush without smelling its fragrance; and we don’t notice the frosted spider web on a crisp fall morning.
In this book Sydell Rosenberg gives readers one haiku for every letter of the alphabet. Each one captures a tiny moment in time that is special in some way, a moment that has a beauty about it that is perfect in its minimalism.
For the letter A we encounter a tired cat who, after a day full of adventures, “sits / in the fur ring / of his tail, and dreams.” Perhaps this little moment in time does not seem like much, but there is something comforting about it. There is a rightness about the scene of the sleeping cat that touches us.
In the haiku for the letter P we meet a girl on a bike who is “plunging downhill” and there are petals “falling in her hair.” Anyone who has ridden a bike down a hill at full speed can imagine how joyful this moment is, and one can almost see those petals drifting to the ground on the wind.
Throughout this book bright and minimal illustrations offer the perfect backdrop to the author’s delightful poems.
