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!