Title: IF Not FOR THE Cat
Author: Prelutsky, Jack
Illustrator: Rand, Ted
Publisher and Date: Greenwillow Books, 2004
Genre: Poetry
Age Range: K-5th
IF Not FOR THE Cat is such a unique collections of poems; I have never read anything like it. The book is made up of seventeen Haiku’s written by Jack Prelutsky. A Haiku is a special form of poetry first developed and used by the Japanese. It is a three-line nonrhyming poem that contains seventeen syllables. (Usually five syllables in the first line, seven in the second, and five in the third.) A haiku traditionally makes an observation about nature. In Jack Prelutsky’s book, each Haiku is written about a different animal. Each animal is described in the Haiku and a picture of the animal is drawn on the page, but the name of the animal is not revealed. Students have to guess the animal’s name based on the description and the picture. I have to take a moment to mention the illustrations in this book. Each illustration is a painting constructed using a mix of sumi brush drwing in India ink, traditional watercolors, chalk spatter, and printmaking techniques. They are done on rag stock watercolor paper and rice paper. Each drawing is beautifully done to give the reader a hint about the animal's name, be sure to check them out! The animals are listed by page numbers for the reader on the “Who is who” page at the end of the book. This reminded me a lot of Steve Jenkins’s book, What Do You Do With a Tail Like This? In both books, the students get to interact with the text by guessing. I think it’s a great way to get students excited about reading and in this case it’s an excellent way to introduce the Haiku form of poetry.
One of my favorite poems from the book is…..
Gaudily feathered,
With nothing at all to say,
I can’t stop talking.
I really liked this poem because it reminded me of the parrots I have seen in pet stores. I always visit a pet store if I see one, and usually there are always parrots in the store talking and chirping away. The racket they make is always noticeable. It’s such an oxymoron that they are always talking yet they don’t have anything to say; if you take time to think this through, you’ll discover it is so true. Parrots constantly make noise, but they only parrot or repeat what we say, they can’t make intelligent conversation on their own. When reading through the elements of good poetry in the Temple textbook I noticed that this Haiku fits two of them. The first element of good poetry that I noticed in this Haiku is imagery. When you read this poem it first emits visual imagery with the line “gaudily feathered” and then it moves to auditory imagery with the lines “with nothing at all to say, I can’t stop talking.” The reader can both hear and see the parrot. The second element I noticed is insight. As I mentioned earlier, if you take time to think through what this poem is saying, you find yourself saying, “ah that is so true.” Parrots don’t have anything to say, yet they talk constantly.
Author: Prelutsky, Jack
Illustrator: Rand, Ted
Publisher and Date: Greenwillow Books, 2004
Genre: Poetry
Age Range: K-5th
IF Not FOR THE Cat is such a unique collections of poems; I have never read anything like it. The book is made up of seventeen Haiku’s written by Jack Prelutsky. A Haiku is a special form of poetry first developed and used by the Japanese. It is a three-line nonrhyming poem that contains seventeen syllables. (Usually five syllables in the first line, seven in the second, and five in the third.) A haiku traditionally makes an observation about nature. In Jack Prelutsky’s book, each Haiku is written about a different animal. Each animal is described in the Haiku and a picture of the animal is drawn on the page, but the name of the animal is not revealed. Students have to guess the animal’s name based on the description and the picture. I have to take a moment to mention the illustrations in this book. Each illustration is a painting constructed using a mix of sumi brush drwing in India ink, traditional watercolors, chalk spatter, and printmaking techniques. They are done on rag stock watercolor paper and rice paper. Each drawing is beautifully done to give the reader a hint about the animal's name, be sure to check them out! The animals are listed by page numbers for the reader on the “Who is who” page at the end of the book. This reminded me a lot of Steve Jenkins’s book, What Do You Do With a Tail Like This? In both books, the students get to interact with the text by guessing. I think it’s a great way to get students excited about reading and in this case it’s an excellent way to introduce the Haiku form of poetry.
One of my favorite poems from the book is…..
Gaudily feathered,
With nothing at all to say,
I can’t stop talking.
I really liked this poem because it reminded me of the parrots I have seen in pet stores. I always visit a pet store if I see one, and usually there are always parrots in the store talking and chirping away. The racket they make is always noticeable. It’s such an oxymoron that they are always talking yet they don’t have anything to say; if you take time to think this through, you’ll discover it is so true. Parrots constantly make noise, but they only parrot or repeat what we say, they can’t make intelligent conversation on their own. When reading through the elements of good poetry in the Temple textbook I noticed that this Haiku fits two of them. The first element of good poetry that I noticed in this Haiku is imagery. When you read this poem it first emits visual imagery with the line “gaudily feathered” and then it moves to auditory imagery with the lines “with nothing at all to say, I can’t stop talking.” The reader can both hear and see the parrot. The second element I noticed is insight. As I mentioned earlier, if you take time to think through what this poem is saying, you find yourself saying, “ah that is so true.” Parrots don’t have anything to say, yet they talk constantly.
Jack Prelutsky's poems are a treat! He was named our nation's first Children's Poet Laureate! Be sure to check him out!
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