My newest book, entitled At the Haiku Zoo, released today!
The book was inspired by a trip my family took to Busch Gardens in Tampa Bay, Florida. Busch Gardens has a wonderful balance of amusement park rides and animal habitats–which energized the thrill-seekers in our group as well as the animal-lovers. I could have spent days there!
The biggest challenge in writing this book? Narrowing down which wild animals would inhabit the pages! I love involving other people in the writing process, so I conducted two surveys to help with this. I posted the first survey on Facebook, asking people to name the five animals they most liked to see on a trip to the zoo. Here are the results of the Facebook survey:
Using the results of the Facebook survey, I made a list of 18 animals and asked early elementary students to vote for their favorite animal. Here are the results of the student survey:
Although none of the students voted for the giraffe, I took the liberty of making sure one made it into the book–after all, they’re one of MY favorite animals to visit:-) Also, if you look, you may notice a correlation between the students’ survey results and the cover of the book.
Haiku is such a beautiful form of expression. It invites us to extricate ourselves from the busy rush around us. To focus on the here and the now of a little slice of life–a slice we might miss out on otherwise. Like a photograph, a haiku poem creates a snapshot–a word snapshot–of a moment in time.
I hope that you enjoy the word snapshots in At the Haiku Zoo.
You can click here if you’d like to buy the book or find out more about it.