Basho and the Fox

Basho was a real poet in Japan's history. And this picture book would be an amazing introduction into any poetry unit on haiku. Not only does it give examples of haikus and what inspired the poet to write them, but there's a bonus added lesson that people like things that are about themselves. The

Show More

pictures are beautiful and fill each page with color. Be sure to look up the Japanese original of his second poem ("An old pond. A frog jumps in. The sound of water.") you can stop and ask your students if they notice anything wrong with that poem (it has the wrong number of syllables for a haiku). Then you can explain that in the original Japanese (it's a real poem written by the real poet, Basho) it fits perfectly ("Fu-ru-i-ke ya. Ka-wa-zu to-bi-ko-mu. Mi-zu no o-to.").

Show Less