Hi, Koo!: A Year of Seasons by Jon J Muth (review)

This creative poetic sequence follows the seasons through twenty-six haiku, partnered with illustrations that feature Muth’s familiar anthropomorphized panda as he explores the joys of fall, winter, spring, and summer along with his child friends. The poems are deftly aimed at kid experiences (“Eating warm cookies/ on a cold day/ is easy”), and the phrasing is often evocative; additionally, the alphabet threads through the sequence, with each poem containing a capitalized word beginning with its relevant letter. Muth’s delicate watercolors are triumphant, setting tender washes of sky and grass against the very kidlike poses of Koo the panda as he cranes his neck skyward or peers intently at ground-level action; their clarity is a particularly fine partner for Muth’s easygoing, freeform haiku (an introduction states his reasons for eschewing the conventional syllabic rules). This has potential for both reading alone and aloud, since the poems are accessible enough to serve as youthful writing prompts but are also crisp and vivid as oral verse.