I understand Haiku's now! There like personal anecdotes of the artist, their feelings illustrated in paper. Koo is such a pleasant person ( )

A book of 26 Haiku poems that take you through all 4 seasons. The book begins with haiku poems pertaining to fall, each one leading into the next. The book moves on to winter, spring and summer. This would be a great book to introduce Haiku poems to student's. I love the word play on the title, but it may be a bit confusing for some students. The panda is a fantastic main character that is flowing through his year. It would be fun to introduce this in kindergarten when talking about seasons and weather! ( )

Very cute! The poems don't adhere to the traditional Haiku format, but the offer states that many don't strictly adhere to the 5-7-5 format anymore. It still had the essence of Haiku. I loved how each individual poem felt like both a vignette in itself and part of a greater story. ( )

This book is great for first or second graders. It is an easy read but often kindergarteners do not do much with poem type books. This books was very good for a younger audience learning about hi koos, the text was fairly short for the age group. It used a panda to work through the story plot which was very engaging. I would use this to introduce hikoos into a classroom and then let students explore more with that. ( )

This review originally found at The Children's Book and Media Review

Hi, Koo! A Year of Seasons is about a panda named Koo during the seasons of the year. Instead of a specific storyline, it is a collection of haiku about different events throughout the year. Each poem is accompanied by an illustration of Koo with his friends doing something related to the haiku. The author’s note in the beginning explaining that the traditional 5-7-5 pattern of haiku is hard to accomplish in English so the emphasis in this book is the feeling of the poetry rather than the pattern of it.

This book contains a surprising amount of depth for a picture book with its hidden alphabet pattern, familiarization with a form of poetry that it likely new for its audience, and beautiful pictures. The unusual choice of writing in haiku and then breaking haiku tradition helps keep the emphasis on the emotions of the poem and the beautiful illustrations. This book would be useful for introducing children to haiku and being connected to nature, but younger children might not be able to grasp it as well as older children can. ( )