Guyku: A Year of Haiku for Boys
The wind and I play
tug-of-war with my new kite.
The wind is winning.
Nature also has a way of making a guy appreciate important stuff--like how many rocks it takes to dam up a stream, or how much snow equals a day off from school.
So what kind of poetry best captures these special moments, at a length that lets guys get right back to tree-climbing and kite-flying? Why, guyku, of course!
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Bob Raczka comes from a family of four guys (his brothers are Bill, Brian and Brad) and he is the father of two guys (his sons Robert and Carl). He also has a guy dog named Rufus. The smart and beautiful gals who put up with his guy-ness are his wife, Amy, and his daughter, Emma. Bob's favorite guy things include art, baseball, books, golf, grilling, and poetry. Bob is the author of several children's books, but Guyku is his first with Houghton Mifflin. Visit his website at www.bobrasczka.com. Peter H. Reynolds is a New York Times best-selling illustrator who has created many acclaimed books for children, including The Dot, Ish, and The North Star. His bookstore, The Blue Bunny, and his company, FableVision, both in Massachusetts, are dedicated to sharing "stories that matter, stories that move." Visit his webite at www.peterhreynolds.com.
* "This wonderful collection will resonate with all children as they recognize their earnest and sometimes misdirected antics in each poem. The pen, ink, and watercolor illustrations mirror the simplicity of each entry and capture the expressions of the boys and their adventures honestly. This is haiku at its most fun. All libraries should grab it for their collections."
--School Library Journal, starred review
"This is childhood as adults remember it, or want to remember it: no flat-screen TVs, no computers, no cars or cellphones. Whether children will recognize their own lives in these wistful visions is not clear, but they will certainly appreciate Raczka's humor."
--Publishers Weekly
"Non-rhyming poetry can be a tough sell for kids. For some, though, haiku is less intimidating, thanks to its brevity and reliance on rigid rules--and intimidating is one thing this book is not."
--Booklist
"Raczka and Reynolds are a winning team, and the results will start many boy (and girl) readers thinking about turning their own experience into a seventeen-syllable poem."
--The Horn Book
