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Summary
Summary
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!
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
Author Notes
Jack Prelutsky, born on September 8, 1940 in Brooklyn, New York, is primarily known as a poet for children but he is also a gifted musician, actor, photographer, sculptor and potter. Prelutsky studied at Hunter College for two years. He proposed to his future wife, Carolynn, on the day they met; she accepted the next day.
While growing up in Brooklyn, Prelutsky studied voice at The High School of Music and Art in New York and first planned to be an opera singer. However, he decided he did not have the drive to sing opera, and he became a folk singer. Later he tried his hand at drawing. For fun, he wrote some short poems and made some drawings, which became his first publication. He has since published numerous books of illustrated poetry and also provided illustrations for books by other writers, including many in translation.
Prelutsky never condescends to his young readers. He deals in verse with many imaginative creatures, but he also writes about people and problems such bullies, school, and fear of the dark. He is aware of the sound of his words and likes to perform his poetry to the accompaniment of the guitar. He visits schools and libraries to perform his work.
Jack Prelutsky is the recipient of numerous awards. In 1977 The Children's Book Council honored him for Nightmares: Poems to Trouble Your Sleep. His other award-winners are The Mean Old Mean Hyena, The Headless Horseman Rides Tonight, and The New Kid on the Block. In 2006, the Poetry Foundation named Prelutsky the inaugural winner of the Children's Poet Laureate award. His book Behold the Bold Umbrellaphant and Other Poems (illustrated by Carin Berger) won the 2007 Scandiuzzi Children's Book Award of the Washington State Book Awards in the Picture Book category.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (5)
School Library Journal Review
Gr 1-4-Each of the 17 haiku in this collection explores the essence of an animal, the words forming a sort of riddle answered in Rand's accompanying double-page illustration. The title poem, "If not for the cat/And the scarcity of cheese,/I could be content," features a mouse looking at a bewhiskered nose through a hole; a jellyfish drifts across a spread in "Boneless, translucent,/We undulate, undulate,/Gelatinously." Prelutsky shows his command of word choice through a minimalist form that is perfectly matched by Rand's control of his mixed-media artwork to create a wonderful celebration of the art of haiku. This book, like George Shannon's Spring (Greenwillow, 1996) and Dawnine Spivak's Grass Sandals (Atheneum, 1997), shows the continuity and vitality of this ancient poetic form.-Kathleen Whalin, York Public Library, ME (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
At once elegant and droll, this fine collaboration spotlights various animals through 17 haiku, each set against a stunning full-spread, close-range illustration of the featured creature in its natural habitat. Author and artist tip their hats to Eastern traditions with the poetic form and with mix-media compositions that echo Chinese silkscreen. The book takes its title from the first line of the inaugural poem ("If not for the cat,/ And the scarcity of cheese,/ I could be content"), and Rand's (Here Are My Hands) wry image of a mouse looking out from the darkness that dominates the spread, safe behind the wall, to the whiskered snout of a cat perched by the mouse hole, provides ideal accompaniment. By contrast, the brilliantly lit scene that follows highlights a glorious tangle of nasturtiums visited by a hummingbird. Prelutsky's (Scranimals) versatile verse adopts a pleasing range of first-person voices. Against a symphony of blues, the words of the jellyfish emulate its motion as it seems to swim across the spread ("Boneless, translucent,/ We undulate, undulate,/ Gelatinously"). A moth asks ponderously, "How foolish I am./ Why am I drawn to the flame/ Which extinguishes?"; Rand visually links the color of the moth with the halo around the candle, making its attraction seem inevitable. Though it's not difficult to identify the critters (specified on the final page), younger children especially will have fun naming each species. Deceptive in their simplicity, these haiku will send aspiring wordsmiths off to try their own. Ages 3-up. (Oct.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Horn Book Review
(Primary) On each of seventeen double-page spreads, a different animal describes itself in a haiku. Prelutsky's poems, which follow the traditional five-seven-five syllable structure, use words that convey meaning through both sense and sound. Alliteration in the beaver haiku (""I have no hatchet / And yet I fell a forest. / My teeth are my tools"") sounds quick and methodical. The jellyfish poem (""Boneless, translucent, / We undulate, undulate, / Gelatinously"") has an especially euphonic effect, its words transmitting to both mind and ear a soft, watery quality, the rhythmic lines swimming gracefully along. Words and images in the eagle haiku (""From nests in the clouds / We survey our dominion / With telescope eyes"") radiate a majestic superiority; internal rhyme in the crow haiku (""Raucously we caw. / Your straw men do not fool us. / We burgle your corn"") imitates the bird's repetitive call.Rand's art -- a mix of ink drawings, watercolors, and other techniques -- is equally eloquent; some illustrations are fittingly reminiscent of Japanese ink paintings, with their transparent brush work and elegant, calligraphic lines. The animals are portrayed realistically, with the rare exceptions (such as a smiling sloth) perhaps reminders that these poems are expressing human, not necessarily scientific, perceptions. Author and artist's perceptions, here, are particularly adroit and memorable. (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.
Kirkus Review
Prelutsky changes pace and adopts a philosophical tone in a set of animal riddles framed as first-person haiku: "Gaudily feathered, / With nothing at all to say, / I can't stop talking." Answers are provided at the end, but they're superfluous, as Rand fills each spread with gorgeous inked-and-brushed figures; the parrot's plumage is more iridescent than "gaudy," a skunk's white stripes and tail explode like fireworks against a solidly black background, a mouse peers anxiously through its dimly lit hole, inches away from a feline nose. "If not for the cat, / And the scarcity of cheese, / I could be content." As the solutions are there on the page, this works best if children don't see the picture until they've heard the riddle, and had a chance to guess who's posing it. But even in this uncharacteristic form, Prelutsky's poetry is as engaging as ever, Rand has outdone himself, and the collaboration is likely to become as much of a storytime favorite as Beatrice Schenk De Regniers's classic It Does Not Say Meow (1972). (Picture book/poetry. 5-8) Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
PreS-Gr. 3. Quiet in tone and, like traditional haiku, taking inspiration from the natural world, these 17 poems express the points of view of individual animals, from mouse to moth, from skunk to crow. Each turn of the page brings a new verse, illustrated with a variety of media but primarily brushed ink and watercolors. The wide, double-page spreads offer plenty of space for illustrations, but Rand approaches the compositions with admirable subtlety and restraint in the use of color and detail, and he creates a series of dramatic scenes. In the title verse, a little mouse cowers on the dark side of his mouse hole while a cat's nose, mouth, and whiskers appear in his lighted doorway. White letters on the black page proclaim, If not for the cat, / And the scarcity of cheese, / I could be content. The best of these poems play with sounds and words in an illuminating, satisfying manner, and even the more prosaic have the requisite 17 syllables, which teachers will appreciate. The appealing, accessible haiku verses and the large-scale, beautiful artwork will make this the go-to book for haiku to read aloud in classrooms. --Carolyn Phelan Copyright 2004 Booklist