The original 104 page Meow Mischief, Haiku A to Z children’s picture book is packed with creativity: photography, graphic art, background illustrations, artistic typography, original haiku with pictures, and activities to make learning fun.

The book opens with unique front matter that boasts over 30 images of studio kittens in collage format on the title page, gift page, and author’s note page. In the author’s note, the author Kelly mentions that the book was inspired by all of the adorable kittens that were foster kittens that she cared for herself and photographed in her home. Along with adorable photography, Kelly wrote each haiku to tell the story and capture the personality of each mischievous kitten on the page. Kelly also emphasizes the educational value of the book and the many lessons that can be taught with it. It is apparent animal advocacy and education play a major role in her life. 

The Haiku A to Z alphabet begins with very large full color page spreads, a kitten and haiku for each letter of the alphabet. Kids will have a new furry friend on each page to motivate and encourage their interactive self-directed learning. They will be entertained reading haiku kitten stories with rhythmic, bouncy alliteration and silly onomatopoeia word sounds and will learn challenging vocabulary and comprehension skills based on context clues presented in the stories. There are many facets of art and creativity involved in each page of the book. You will notice the backgrounds of the studio kitten photos for each page spread include a variety of textural elements and graphics that compliment the image and text. Each page is a themed work of art in itself with great detail given to the typography and decorative flow of words as elements for each page. The book is brought cohesively together with the trail of butterflies who visit each kitten on each page through the alphabet and into the activity section. 

 The activity section begins at the culmination of the alphabet picture book after letter Z. For Kelly, as a former teacher, the idea of a children’s picture book with an activity section was a natural progression of a typical whole language lesson Kelly would create for her own class. The activity section is approximately over 40 pages of lessons that teach haiku, alliteration. onomatopoeia, and vocabulary word games. Students will become young poets as they learn how to create their own haiku with space in the book to write. There is a Haiku word list of over 75 words that are from the haiku poems. Vocabulary and spelling of the words are reinforced through the use of puzzles and games: 8 crossword puzzles and 5 word search puzzles. As students work through the book, they will be delighted to read motivational and encouraging words from kittens on each page.

The book concludes with several pages of back matter that include 30 more adorable kitten images in collage format! Students can choose their favorite mischievous kitten!  Finally there is a special acknowledgements page thanking those that support rescue, animal welfare and the support for Kelly in the creation of her book.  

This book will make a great summer activity book, for all ages 6-12. 

YOUNGER children: Check out Meow Mischief, abridged edition for Little Ones ages 1-6. This book includes all of the beautiful imagery and poetry A to Z as the original, without the challenging activity section.