Wing Nuts: Screwy Haiku

by Paul B. Janeczko, J. Patrick Lewis, Tricia Tusa (Illustrator)

This hilarious collection of offbeat poetry introduces senryu, a cousin of haiku featuring punchy and punny poems that tackle a range of child-friendly subjects. Full color.

Genres: Poetry, Picture Books, Humor, Childrens, Nonfiction

32 pages, Hardcover

First published April 5, 2006

About the author

Paul B. Janeczko is a poet and teacher and has edited more than twenty award-winning poetry anthologies for young people, including STONE BENCH IN AN EMPTY PARK, LOOKING FOR YOUR NAME, SEEING THE BLUE BETWEEN, and A POKE IN THE I, which was an American Library Association Notable Book.

Reviews

[Dolly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Funny, punny haikus (some are considered senryu.) Probably more appropriate for older children and adults who can appreciate the word play, but it's a good introduction to poetry. Short poems and whimsical illustrations...what more can you ask for?

[Matthew · Rating 4 out of 5]

This collection of senryu, haiku's forgotten relative, is really well done. Since both J. Patrick Lewis and Paul Janeczko are well established as great children's poets, the resulting book is hardly a surprise. Great fun, and a cool form of poetry.

[Shannon · Rating 3 out of 5]

My kids are suuuuper into puns this year. I imagine they'll love this book.

[Alora · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wing Nuts: Screwy Haiku by Paul B. Janeckzo and J. Patrick Lewis Illustrated by Tricia Tusa
Additional Poetry Selection

The word choice within Wing Nuts is clever! I caught myself chuckling a few times at the word choices within each haiku. I looked forward to seeing what the author was going to write about on the next page. Throughout the duration of reading this, I never found myself looking at the illustrations as much as I do a lot of other books. I love illustrations in books and couldn’t get myself to look at them in depth.

The illustrations within this book are very loud. There is a bunch of washed out and neutral images throughout the book. The images did not grab my eye when I read through it for the first time. The images are organic within. This makes it a book that when read, the illustrations are not the first thing that the children will choose to spend their time looking at. In this case, it will be glancing at the images and then back to the text within.

I give this book 3 stars. I found the text was very humorous, however the illustrations were very lackluster in my opinion.

[Terry]

Dad didn't like this one, Mom thought it was a great change. The poetry is clever, creative, and humorous. Although designed as a children's book, it takes a savvy reader/listener to enjoy all the book has to offer. Read more in the full review.

[Mariah Aivazis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wing Nuts: Screwy Haiku was an interesting poetry book. It is full of Haiku’s and puns. I think children will enjoy it because it is funny, but it is not one of my favorite books. I think it could be useful in a classroom library for poetry language.

[Suhad Albaat · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was not one of my favorites, but I did laugh at some of the pages because of the puns. I was not a big fan of the illustrations in this book, I thought they were plane.

[Jodi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Enjoyable, humorous haikus kids will laugh out loud reading. Poems are short haikus with fun illustrations. Great for all ages.

[Lizzie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a funny poetry book. Some of it is hard to get and it is written all in Haiku. This is a tricky type of poetry for children to understand so it may need to be used with older children. Most of the humor was a play on words. For example one Haiku read,
"Grandpa's underwear
pulled up so high-
a chest of drawers"
It had some very cute poems. I believe what makes the book though is the illustrations. Sometimes when you cant figure out the poem you can look at the pictures and it helps you to understand.

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is challenging to introduce young students to haiku. Examples of this type of poetry are hard to find...especially ones that students actually enjoy reading and are able to understand. Wing Nuts wonderfully meets that need. Humorous! Causes students to pause for a moment then laugh after they get the joke. I love it!

[Randie D. Camp, M.S. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Just as the title implies, this is a book full of wacky haikus and humorous illustrations to match. Many of the puns and jokes require sophisticated thinking but children of all ages can still enjoy the fun poems.

[Rachel]

None of these had titles. They were interesting but they were not good examples of what Haikus are supposed to be. None of them talked about nature. They were all silly.

[Kristen]

Two thumbs up from my kids! They laughed throughout (although I'm not convinced they quite got all the word play, but it was obviously still enjoyable). A great read aloud!

[Kayla · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a fun book to read. I really enjoy haikus. This is definitely a book I would read out of to my students in the future. The illustrations are also very nice.

[Sandy Brehl · Rating 4 out of 5]

Word play matches image play point for point and page for page. These poems and illustrations are best served repeatedly, huddled over, talked about, played with, and rediscovered often.

[Rikki · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ok book of haikus. I think kids would definitely enjoy this. It would be a great book to include in a curriculum when teaching kids about poetry and haikus.

[Barbara Lovejoy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another serendipitous experience--found this book when looking for another book at the library. Some of the poems are clever. I especially liked the illustrations!

[Lari · Rating 4 out of 5]

Would use when teaching haiku and also in my classroom library's poetry bin. Also good for teaching "playing" with language.

[Nicole · Rating 5 out of 5]

funny haikus the kids loved! :)

[Lorraine Der]

Library Catalog

[Jena · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a fun book! Haiku full of puns! Example:

"Noah webster had
no choice except to put
the cart before the horse."

[Lori Gravley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sillyness abounds. This would be a nice classroom inspiration for silly haiku.

[Cheryl · Rating 3 out of 5]

Unfortunately the note explaining "senryu" (vs. haiku) is only on the jacket. And books should be loved enough to outlive their jackets....

Anyway, these are funny. And very accessible, even to kids who think they don't like poetry. Most aren't substantial enough for me, but I did like:

Lions versus gazelles!
game of speed of game--
zebra referees

Note the word-play, and the mental imagery of the B&W striped character. But no, I have no idea why it begins with an uppercase letter and yet does not end with a period.

Some children will love:

City pigeons chatter
and coo--busybodies
eavesdropping

And of course I have to quote the most apt verse:

What is a senryu?
A funny poem that is
Almost haiku-ckoo