If Not for the Cat (Horn Book Fanfare List (Awards))
Grade 1-4&ndash;Each of the 17 haiku in this collection explores the essence of an animal, the words forming a sort of riddle answered in Rand's accompanying double-page illustration. The title poem, "If not for the cat/And the scarcity of cheese,/I could be content," features a mouse looking at a bewhiskered nose through a hole; a jellyfish drifts across a spread in "Boneless, translucent,/We undulate, undulate,/Gelatinously." Prelutsky shows his command of word choice through a minimalist form that is perfectly matched by Rand's control of his mixed-media artwork to create a wonderful celebration of the art of haiku. This book, like George Shannon'sSpring(Greenwillow, 1996) and Dawnine Spivak'sGrass Sandals(Atheneum, 1997), shows the continuity and vitality of this ancient poetic form.&ndash;Kathleen Whalin, York Public Library, MECopyright &copy; Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.