Seeing Into Tomorrow: Haiku by Richard Wright, Nina Crews
Published by Millbrook Press (Tm) on February 1st 2018
ISBN: 151241865X
Pages: 32
Goodreads

The photographs may be the first thing to draw your attention to this book, but you will soon stay for the haiku, and the story behind them. The individual parts each deserve attention and recognition, but the sum of the parts is even more important.

African American author Richard Wright was not known for his haiku during his lifetime, but this volume will bring much attention to his life and his work. Some of these are literal, some are figurative, some are both.

Nina Crews uses photographs in a unique way to illustrate the twelve poems. Instead of a single photograph, each page has a series of small photographs that combined show an image reflecting the haiku on that page.  Each spread includes a young African American boy exploring or experiencing the theme or topic of each haiku. Each poem is spread across a double page spread in a variety of colored fonts. The last page offers much hope of “seeing into tomorrow” with the boy posed as looking toward the future.

Could be used in elementary and middle school units about not only haiku, but photography, nature, the Great Migration and prejudice through the African American experience.

Recommended for Cream of the Crop.

Reviewed by Lynn Mayer, Librarian, Old Town Elementary School.