I love the push of recent poetry picture books to explore nature, but it’s NOT a new phenomenon.  Today’s poem was written in the 1700s by Japanese poet Issa who specialized in Haiku.  The picture book “Cool Melons–Turn to Frogs!” is both a collection of poetry AND a biography of the poet’s life.  What a fascinating combination!  Each poem in the book was selected to help push the biography along.  I love how the poems capture different stages of his life.  I also love how the illustrations capture some moment of each poem as well as including the Japanese brush poem along the margins of the book.  Wonderful design and layout!