Poetic Form: Haiku

Janeczko, Paul B. and J. Patrick Lewis. 2006. Wing Nuts: Screwy Haiku. Ill. by Tricia Tusa. New York: Little, Brown and Company. ISBN: 0-316-60731-2.

Book Review:

In Wing Nuts: Screwy Haiku, authors Janeczko and Lewis enthusiastically take on the poetic form called “Senyru,” which is similar to Haiku in its use of 17 syllables, but is very different in terms of tone.  Haiku generally focuses on things in nature or seasons as the theme; Senyru focuses on characteristics of human nature, usually in an ironic or satiric manner.

 In Wing Nuts, the authors generously use word play or puns to give a humorous zing to their Senyru, often requiring some critical thinking to figure them out.  “Noah Webster had/no choice except to put/the cart before the horse,” for example, would require the reader to know that Webster was related to a dictionary, the word cart comes before horse in a dictionary, and “don’t put the cart before the horse” is an idiom.  And “grandpa’s underwear/pulled up so high -/a chest of drawers” would probably need explaining, as underwear is no longer referred to as “drawers” in this generation.  Though written as a children’s book, Wing Nuts has wide appeal for children as well as adults.

Tusa’s pen and ink and water color illustrations are an integral part of the book and give the poems a consistent story line that otherwise would not be evident.  We follow a boy with a blue ball who descends a ladder into the book and observes and participates in the various scenes established by the poems, such as: hippos watching TV (“hippo-potato-mus"), crows using a “cawing card," an incomplete marching band needing a “substi-toot," and a ride on a Ferris wheel regretting a full stomach (“those below agree”). Finally, the boy ascends the ladder and follows as the “senyru goes/ bouncing along…/into a giant poet-tree.”  Young children will enjoy the detailed and whimsical illustrations, if not fully comprehending the text without help.

Sharing the Poetry:

Wing Nuts:Screwy Haiku could be used in a variety of ways.  First of all, it is just a fun book for a parent and child to read and enjoy together.  Puns require a higher level of thinking to understand, and a parent or caregiver would be encouraging visual and cultural literacy in examining the illustrations and the wordplay in the text.

In a curriculum unit about literary devices, a teacher could read the short book Punished, by David Lubar, about a boy cursed by a magical librarian to speak only in puns, and use Wing Nuts to provide additional examples of puns and wordplay. Another book titled Rhyme & Punishment: Adventures in Wordplay, by J.P. Sandy, could be included as well.  Children could be tasked with writing their own Senyru with a wordplay twist.

Selected Poem:

There are so many delightful Senyru in Wing Nuts that it is hard to choose just one.  They are so short, that I decided to share several.

(Use of Homophone and idiom)

Tabby and Fido

do whatever they want –

reigning cat and dog.

(Use of Pun)

Solitary crow

Calls its cousin in distant pine

With its cawing card

(My personal favorite – poor squirrel!)

Sluggish squirrel lurches

Across the busy highway

To the other si-

(My tentative attempt at Senyru:)

Chewing gum makes you

Chew off more than you can bite –

Sticky idiom

References

Australian Curriculum Assessment. 2013. “Wordplay in Poetry.” https://www.qsa.qld.edu.au/downloads/p_10/ac_sa_eng_yr4_wordplay_poetry.pdf (accessed February 24, 2014).

Books in Print. n.d. Wing Nuts: Screwy Haiku. http://ezproxy.twu.edu:2125/DetailedView.aspx?hreciid=|16801062|7426756&mc=USA# (accessed February 24, 2014).

Encyclopedia Britannica Online, s.v. “Senyru.” http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/534670/senryu (accessed February 24, 2014).