Customer Reviews

Haiku Baby

5 star:		(23)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This little board book looks rather unassuming at first. Parents may pass over it in favor of slightly larger volumes, or those board books with familiar stories and characters. Given a chance, however, haiku baby is a delightful addition to a baby's library.

Each 2-page layout in the book (seven in all) features a different haiku about a natural element, such as rain, or sun or the moon. These haiku follow the traditional format of a certain number of syllables per line, but the actual content tends to be livelier for the younger audience. The author makes use of onomatopoeic words as well as animal characters and exclamations. The result is warm and engaging without becoming overly cute and keeping the character of haiku. Rather than the usual page structure, each page of the board book has an outstanding tab on the side that allows the reader to thumb through to the different pages. Each tab has a symbol for the particular haiku on that page layout. For instance, on the autumnal page with a haiku about a leaf, the tab has the image of a small gingko leaf. These tabs will help youngsters still learning how to work their fingers learn to turn the pages.

The art work in this book is whimsical and colorful; each page features a different animal and a different color scheme. The pages appear to be created by a mix of cut outs and possibly watercolors, there are no bold outlines here and it gives the whole book a softer feel. Each page has the repeating image of a small blue bird that appears originally on the front cover, providing a challenge to older children to find the bird in each scene. In addition to the actual artwork, each page includes the main poetic element represented by a Chinese character. Overall, there's a lot packed into this small package--not to mention it's a joy to read aloud. Parents who like to expose their young children to a wide range of culture, art and style may want to include this book in their collection. I definitely think it worth the purchase price!

For those who enjoy haiku and picture books, look for Today and Today, featuring the poetry of Issa Kobayashi and If Not for the Cat by Jack Prelutsky, which contains non-traditional riddle haiku about animals.

Happy Reading! ^_^ Shanshad

I love this author and illustrator! I'm getting all her books! This book has great artwork, my son (6 months now) loves the bright colors. And the haiku's are short (of course) and sweet and so much fun to read. My son's favorite line is "plunk, plop, belly flop" because I pat my hand on his tummy in rhythm. I only wonder why she put the hippopotamus on a snow mountaintop, but that gives me something to talk to my son about later, how hippos are definitely NOT mountain climbers!

This is such a beautiful little book. My baby got "Haiku Baby" as a present when he was 5 months old. He has been loving it since then. He is now 10 months old and asks us to read this book by picking it up. We enjoy the beautiful illustrations, which name each animal and nature element, and we look for the little bluebird on each page. I highly recommend this book for all babies. It's a great baby shower present, too.

This book is a breath of fresh air, relaxing, beautiful, fun pictures but nice for mommy and baby both. Some kid's books can become very tedious even annoying to read over and over again. I love the poems in this one and my daughter loves the pictures. It is a win-win.

This book is beautiful in every way: Gorgeous illustrations, bright colors, simple, educational and easy to understand Haikus for baby. I actually enjoyed this book more than popular classics such as "Goodnight Moon".

I bought Haiku Baby and couple other board books recommended on Amazon. My 3-mo-old baby girl is indifferent to the other books, but once she set her eyes on the cover of Haiku baby, she started smiling and didn't stop smiling all the way through the book. I don't know what it is with the book, maybe the color contrast and cute drawings, it just casts spells on my little one. Thank you Betsy Snyder for the excellent work!

We bought this for our 2 year old granddaughter, she loves it! The haikus are wonderful and the graphics are equally as good. We even enjoy this book.

My daughter is 21 months old and this beautiful little book is one of her favorites. Every night, she asks for "Haiku" and loves to read about the nose kisses and belly flops.

The illustrations are gorgeous and have enough details to keep her interest, while the poems themselves trip beautifully on the tongue. I'm glad I picked this one up!

Haiku is a Japanese poem made up of three lines: the first and last lines must have five syllables and the middle must have seven. Therefore, each word must be precise and significant. This book is a beautiful collection of Haiku poems about nature. The pictures are sweet and the poems are beautiful. I think it is important to expose little ones to good literature as early as possible. Children's books can be sophisticated as well as sweet and Haiku Baby fits the bill!

Each poem is about an element in nature: rain, flower, sun, leaf, snow, and moon. It has the Japanese character for that word and then the Haiku poem. The poems are rich with personification and onomotopoeia. The tabs entice little ones to turn the pages.

Haiku Baby is a HIT!

I think many new parents latch onto the standards in board books for baby, which is great, but I think many fantastic books are overlooked because of this. I was looking for new books for the baby I nanny for, and ordered this solely on the ratings and reviews. I was thrilled when it arrived and I discovered a beautiful little book.

The poems are sweet, with sound effects I can make as I read each one aloud. The illustrations are lovely to look at and SO colorful. The tabs on the side will be great when baby is more apt to turn pages. I really love everything about this board book.

The baby is seven months old and loves looking at this book with me. When he is older, we will look for the little blue bird in each illustration.

I will definitely be looking into other books by the author.