The Hound Dog’s Haiku and Other Poems for Dog Lovers by Michael J. Rosen illustrated by Mary Azarian
Michael J. Rosen offers twenty kinds of dogs each in a three-line poem that nudges us to see canines in new ways. And Mary Azazrian makes each woodcut come alive, combining bold lines with a sense of movement, whether the dogs are brooding, dozing (you know that lying on a back dreaming pose), showing off, waiting to greet the family with a welcoming bound, jumping for a Frisbee, digging among daffodils, sniffing or scratching. Each one is a unique portrait, and who can get tired of looking at Mary Azarian’s work? (I remember cheering with the librarian at my daughter’s elementary school when she won the Caldecott Medal for Snowflake Bentley.)
Here’s the haiku for Beagle:
far off, one dog barks
dreams blur like smoke from chimneys
he barks at barking
I like the light touch and unexpected within each short poem of The Hound Dog’s Haiku (Candlewick). The notes at the end, of just a few elegant sentences each, add to our knowledge in a friendly way, with the author drawing on his personal experience as much as offering unusual facts. With a starred review from Kirkus, calling it “the Tao of dogginess,” this is s a great book for dog lovers or poetry lovers, and those of us who are crazy about both.
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