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Seeing into Tomorrow: Haiku by Richard Wright Hardcover – Picture Book, February 1, 2018

by Richard Wright (Author), Nina Crews (Author, Illustrator)
4.7 4.7 out of 5 stars 11 ratings
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A remarkable celebration of Richard Wright, poetry, and contemporary black boys at play.
From walking a dog to watching a sunset to finding a beetle, Richard Wright's haiku puts everyday moments into focus. Now, more than fifty years after they were written, these poems continue to reflect our everyday experiences. Paired with the photo-collage artwork of Nina Crews, Seeing into Tomorrow celebrates the lives of contemporary African American boys and offers an accessible introduction to one of the most important African American writers of the twentieth century.

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Previous page
  1. Reading age
    5 - 10 years
  2. Print length
    32 pages
  3. Language
    English
  4. Grade level
    Kindergarten - 4
  5. Lexile measure
    650L
  6. Dimensions
    10.5 x 0.34 x 9.13 inches
  7. Publisher
    Millbrook Press ™
  8. Publication date
    February 1, 2018
  9. ISBN-10
    151241865X
  10. ISBN-13
    978-1512418651
  11. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

K-Gr 3—This book collects 12 of Wright's outstanding haiku, written 50 years ago and still available in the anthology, Haiku: The Last Poems of an American Icon. The poems offer a view of the world through the lens of his experience, but the appreciation of nature and the emotions felt in such moments have a universal appeal. Crews uses photo collage to illustrate each scene. She explains, "I photographed African American boys for this book, because I wanted the reader to imagine the world through a young brown boy's eyes." Crews shows familiar scenes of boys playing on a shady porch, walking a dog, or writing in snow with a mittened finger. Her chosen medium emphasizes how haiku creates snapshots of single instances or feelings. The final poem ends with the phrase "seeing into tomorrow," which inspired the book's title. On the page, readers will see a young boy gazing up into a brilliant blue sky as if he can glimpse the future. An archival photo of Wright reading to his young daughter accompanies the introduction, and a brief biography of Wright along with a list for further reading is included in the back matter. VERDICT A must for all children's collections. These verses are an introduction to haiku as well as an entry point into Wright's work; they can be read aloud to younger children or enjoyed independently by older readers.—Suzanne Costner, Fairview Elementary School, Maryville, TN

Review

"A must for all children's collections. These verses are an introduction to haiku as well as an entry point into Wright's work; they can be read aloud to younger children or enjoyed independently by older readers."―starred, School Library Journal



"This loving, welcoming introduction to one of the most important American writers of the 20th century centers young black boys as supreme observers and interrogators of the natural wonders that surround them."―starred, Kirkus Reviews



"[A] strong, simple, relatable, immersive introduction to the traditional haiku . . ."―Booklist



"The clustered, overlapping photographs scatter and dissipate at the edges of the spreads, subtly reflecting the evanescence of the moments Wright describes."―Publishers Weekly

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Millbrook Press ™; Illustrated edition (February 1, 2018)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 32 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 151241865X
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1512418651
  • Reading age ‏ : ‎ 5 - 10 years
  • Lexile measure ‏ : ‎ 650L
  • Grade level ‏ : ‎ Kindergarten - 4
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 13.6 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 10.5 x 0.34 x 9.13 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.7 4.7 out of 5 stars 11 ratings

About the author

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Nina Crews

Nina Crews

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Nina Crews creates energetic, affirming books for young children. Her picture books include: A GIRL LIKE ME, SEEING INTO TOMORROW: HAIKU BY RICHARD WRIGHT, ONE HOT SUMMER DAY, THE NEIGHBORHOOD MOTHER GOOSE and BELOW. Her work has been recognized by the ALA Notable Committee, National Council of Teachers of English, Cooperative Children’s Book Council, Junior Library Guild, Bank Street College of Education and numerous others. She lives in Brooklyn, New York, with her husband and son. www.ninacrews.com

Customer reviews

4.7 out of 5 stars
4.7 out of 5
11 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Lisec
5.0 out of 5 stars Wow!
Reviewed in the United States on December 29, 2018
Verified Purchase
I buy many books and rarely review, but I decided to review this one because I love it so much. The haiku are gorgeous as are the photo collages. Simply magnificent. I would use this book with all age students including through middle school. I bought on the kindle, but will also be purchasing a paper copy. Lovely. Lovely. Lovely.
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Toni Eubanks
5.0 out of 5 stars Novelist Richard Wright Wrote terrific Haiku
Reviewed in the United States on October 6, 2020
Wonderful haiku that appeals to youngsters as well as adults.
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Betsy Bird
5.0 out of 5 stars A spring sky so clear
Reviewed in the United States on May 23, 2018
I hate that phrase, “A picture’s worth a thousand words”. It’s trite. Simplistic. And horrendously true. Pictures have power. Take the story that’s been handed to us about African-Americans for decades. The images that appear in our news all tell stories of black violence, crime, and poverty. Stories that people buy into because, after all, can’t you believe your eyes? Children’s books could be a respite from that kind of misrepresentation were it not for the fact that they’re often little better. If you’re a black boy looking for some kind of representation in your books of brown-skinned American boys that aren’t (A) Slaves (B) Former slaves or (C) Living during the Civil Rights Era, good luck to you. And photographs? I mean, finding children’s books with photos to begin with is hard these days. Oh, there was a time back in the 50s and 60s when you might find a book like “J.T.” by Jane Wagner and Gordon Parks, but in spite of the fact that the printing costs of photos in picture books is cheaper than ever, the publishing industry generally treats photography as an embarrassing art form that’s only good for accompanying nonfiction texts. Enter Nina Crews, one of the few photographers working today that regularly includes photographic images of contemporary black kids in her children’s books. She’s paired her work with poetry in the past, though it’s usually of the nursery rhyme variety. Now with “Seeing Into Tomorrow” she tries something new. The haikus of the great author Richard Wright are paired with image after image of black boys running, walking, riding, and just generally staring into a natural world that is this close to showing them the future. A tomorrow that we would all like to see more of.

It’s becoming a good year for the great African-American writers of the 20th century. James Baldwin’s only book for children “Little Man, Little Man” is being reprinted, there’s a novel of a boy discovering the world of Langston Hughes in “Finding Langston” by Lesa Cline-Ransome on the horizon, and now Richard Wright has his very first collection of haikus in a form for young readers. Originally published after his death in 1998 in the collection “Haiku: This Other World”, Nina Crews has selected a svelte twelve from a possible four thousand. With each poem she constructs squares of photographed images of nature. Forests rise, skies are pieced together, and the poems are featured alongside brown boys that help to embody everything Wright is implying. A brief biography of Richard Wright appears at the back of the book alongside A Note On the Illustrations and well-curated suggestions for Further Reading.

Let’s head off at the pass the whole “what is haiku?” question right here and now, if we can. As far as I can ascertain, there are several ways to tackle that question. You’ve got the folks that adhere to the strict 5-7-5 syllable style, and do not think much about the subject matter. Then you have the folks that point out that the 5-7-5 style is a Western construct. In fact some children’s books (like Jon J. Muth’s “Hi, Koo”) don’t adhere to it at all. Then there’s the subject matter, which, in traditional haiku focuses on nature and how we, as humans, relate to it. In the case of this particular book, Mr. Wright adheres to the 5-7-5 format and he also makes certain that even a poem about the railroad feels a part of nature (after all, trains are experienced by most folks in an outdoor setting). Ms. Crews for her part has selected a wide variety of types of nature, all the better to accompany with her images.

Out of curiosity, I wanted to see if anyone had ever collected Wright’s haikus for kids before. To my astonishment (or was it sadness?) I found that anytime Wright’s haiku comes up in a children's book, he’s just one of many poets in an anthology. There was the “National Geographic Book of Poetry”, “Firefly July”, “African American Poetry” (the one edited by Arnold Rampersad and Marcellus Blount), and a few others. Good books, sure and certainly, but why has no one ever rated Wright’s haikus worthy on their own merits for young readers? Why indeed. Perhaps no one felt equal to the task. Haiku, after all, is difficult to display in a children’s book format unless you know how to tackle the material in an interesting way. And photographs are, to my mind, mighty interesting.

Years ago I organized a panel of photographers working in the field of children’s literature. And, since this was New York after all, I had to make sure that Nina Crews was included. You simply can’t think of artists that illustrate children’s books with photographs (or can you even call it “illustration” at all?) without thinking of Ms. Crews. She was one of the first artists unafraid of Photoshop, producing books like “The Neighborhood Mother Goose”, working with large publishers. I always enjoyed her work, but I felt like I was waiting for something. Something on a grander scale or something. Turns out, I was waiting for “Seeing Into Tomorrow”. Because it isn’t just her selection of the twelve Wright poems that deserves notice. Look how she’s changed her own style to match. First off, there’s the fact that she’s placing her subjects in nature. Because she lives in Brooklyn, so much of Ms. Crews’ work has been set in the city. And, to be honest, it still is sometimes. If I’m not much mistaken the poem of the boy walking the dog looks an awful lot like Prospect Park.

Still, there are true moments of nature beyond the borders of NYC. Her Photoshop work has grown more natural over the years. But most interesting to me was how the backgrounds are cut into overlapping squares and rectangles. I thought long and hard about why she chose to illustrate the book in this way. Then I noticed how well the haikus fit into the blank spaces inside or beside or under the photographs. Haiku, should anyone ask, is supremely difficult to make visually interesting. I’ve seen librarians discount haiku collections where the design overwhelmed the subject matter. Not so here. Here, the font is large and the presentation cool and clear and calming. As for the photos, what could come off as disjointed instead becomes an extension of nature itself. The boys featured here are both part and not part of the backgrounds. And why just black boys? As she explains in her “Note On the Illustrations”, after learning about Mr. Wright’s own youth, she wanted, “the reader to imagine the world through a young brown boy’s eyes. A boy, like Richard Wright, who found wonder in the world around him.”

There is also the occasional in-joke for die-hard children’s literature fans. It was my co-worker who pointed out to me what was going on with one particular poem. The text reads, “Empty railroad tracks: / A strain sounds in the spring hills / And the rails leap with life.” The picture features a freight train coming from wooded hills while a boy and his grandfather watch. I don’t suppose it ever occurred to me to wonder who that older man might be. I had forgotten that Nina Crews is part of a longstanding children’s book legacy. Her mother was Ann Jonas, perhaps best known for the picture book "Round Trip". Her father? None other than Donald Crews, the genius behind that picture book / board book standard “Freight Train”. And there he is in this photograph, big as life, with Nina’s own son, watching a real life freight train chugging on past.

I’m trying to think of books to compare this one to. Trying to think of books about black boys that give them their proper due. A couple years ago I tried counting all the middle grade novels about African-American boys printed in a given year. I came up with five. That number’s slightly higher these days, but black boy pride is still too rare. Maybe things are looking up, though. Last year the Derrick Barnes/Gordon C. James picture book “Crown: Ode to a Fresh Cut” won a Caldecott Honor and a Newbery Honor. This year Tony Medina’s “13 Ways of Looking at a Black Boys” (another book of poetry) is getting rave reviews. With “Seeing Into Tomorrow” these books make a trifecta. It’s not enough. Let’s fill the shelves with strong black boy characters. Let’s make them so prevalent and common that people start arguing with one another over which one is their favorite. And to start? Let’s read “Seeing Into Tomorrow”. A book with a foot in the past and a strong future ahead of it.

For ages 6 and up.
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