Guyku: A Year of Haiku for Boys by Bob Raczka

Raczka, Bob. Illustrated by Peter H. Reynolds. Guyku: A Year of Haiku for Boys. New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing, 2010.

ISBN: 9780547240039

“Guyku: a Year of Haikus for Boys” is a collection of haikus written by Bob Raczka.  The book is broken up into 4 sections: spring, summer, fall, and winter.  The poems have various topics including bugs, fishing, icicle sword fighting, and school.  In the author’s note, Raczka contends that haiku is a “wonderful form of poetry for guys” because they are short, have a predictable format, and are written in present tense.  “Guyku” serves to create an interest for young boys in a notably unpopular form of poetry.  Poetry is typically deemed to be feminine and sometimes difficult to peddle to boys.  Although I believe that many of the poems in this book are applicable to all young kids, not just boys, I respect the aim of the book.

For example:

Winter must be here.

Every time I open my

Mouth, a cloud comes out.

This haiku is selected from the winter section of the book.  The poem describes how you can see your warm breath on a cold day.  All kids (and even adults) are amused to see their puffs of breath on a bitterly cold day.

The beauty of this book is that it demonstrates that haiku can be for everyone but packages it for a largely underserved population.

I most likely would not introduce this book to a full mixed gender classroom because I don’t want to undermine the premise of the book.  I also don’t want to plant an idea in the girl’s minds that haiku is a strictly male form of poetry.  However, if I had to introduce this book to a class; I would first accentuate the fact that all types of poetry are for everyone!  I’d focus on the format of the book and the breakdown of the year by seasons.  I’d split the class into 4 groups: spring, summer, fall, and winter.  Each group would represent a season, within the group they’d brainstorm things they like about the season.  Together, I’d ask the groups to pick a topic and write as many haikus as they can within the time allotment.  Each group would share their poems.