If Not For The Cat

Bibliography

Prelutsky, Jack. If Not for the Cat. Illus. by Ted Rand. China: Greenwillow Books, 2004. 978-0060596774

Review

"If Not for the Cat" is a collection of seventeen haiku that describe different animals. A combination of concrete and abstract meanings are given through these poems. Each haiku is seventeen syllables with alternating five, seven, and five meters on three lines.

Aspects of sound are crucial to the creation of these poems. Assonance is used by repeating a long "u" sound in the jellyfish haiku with "translucent...undulate, undulate" (Prelutsky, p. 11), as well as on pg. 19 with "raucously...caw...straw". Alliteration is an important characteristic of sound in these poems such as in "wingless we won't" (Prelutsky, p.20) or "nastartium's nectar" (Prelutsky, p. 9). Though the lines in the haiku do not rhyme, several words within the poems do show rhyme such as "sing...wings" (Prelutsky, p. 9) and "snack...back...crack" on page 20. Clear repetition brings meaning to the haiku about sloths with "I am" (Prelutsky, p. 12) and ants using "we are" (Prelutsky, p. 27).

Figurative language also plays a significant role in developing descriptive and exciting poems. "Sing with my wings" (Prelutsky, p. 9) is an example of personification as the hummingbird's wings are given a human characteristic. The parrot's description of "nothing at all to say...I can't stop talking" parallel opposites against each other.

Visual imagery is used by Prelutsky with several animals such as "gaudily feathered" on page 24 or "translucent" (pg. 11). In order for readers to feel they are really there and can touch the skin of the animals descriptive words are used like "gelatinously" (Prelutsky, pg. 11) and "wrinkled husks" (Prelutsky, pg. 15).

The emotional impact of this collection changes based on the animal and individual haiku. At times the reader feels tired and slow while reading about a sloth, busy and repetitive when learning about ants, or fearful when reading about the rattlesnake. Prelutsky does a fantastic job of describing these animals and delicately but purposefully putting them in the form of haiku.

Poetry & Connection

Crow

Raucously we caw.

Your straw men do not fool us.

We burgle your corn.

Because each haiku in this collection does not have a title included on the page itself, I would (without showing the pictures) read the poem aloud to the students and have them draw or write the animal they think the poem is describing. After finishing, students can justify with reasons why they think it is the animal they chose. After discussion, I would reveal the picture to the students.

As a follow-up, I would read several other of the poems from the collection and allow students to guess which animal it is describing.