Peek-A-Boo Haiku: A Lift-the-Flap Book

PEEK-A-BOO HAIKU is a cute board book of haikus. Each page spread features a lush forest scene along with a haiku. There are then one or two flaps that peek-a-boo to a particular animal or insect. The concept is simple, but the design is lovely!

What I loved: This is a lush board book with detailed, sweeping illustrations of the forest on each page. The color schemes were very thoughtfully done with different scenes having different prevailing colors, and making them each something lovely to visually explore. The haikus are simple and can introduce early poetry concepts to little ones. The youngest readers will love lifting the flaps to see the animals or bugs that are hiding. If there are two flaps on the page, the animal is the same underneath both, and the poetry ties into the animal children are finding. For instance, a brief poem about eggs left behind on the beach includes a flap that lifts to see a turtle. The images capture different seasons as well, which was a lovely feature for early recognition (though not specifically pointed out in the story).

What left me wanting more: As a small thing, the flaps are just about cardstock thickness, and some are adhered on the thinner part of the flap, making them easily torn for rougher readers. Some of the haikus are a bit confusing for little ones, and while they introduce poetry, it may raise a lot of questions for curious little ones (though caregivers will likely be on hand to explain as needed).

Final verdict: PEEK-A-BOO HAIKU is a lovely board book that will entertain young toddlers with haiku and plenty of flaps.

‘Peek-a-Boo Haiku’ by Danna Smith is a lift-the-flap book with haikus about woodland animals spread throughout the pages. Readers have to guess what animal each haiku refers to, and then lift the flap to see if they were right.

Subtly worded clues are a part of each haiku, and adorable illustrations capture the beauty of the forest and the outdoor world the animals inhabit. Readers will be thrown into the fray easily, allowing them to enjoy the guessing game that leads to figuring out each haiku’s animal when they lift the flap.

The colorful images capture the various seasons and encourage readers to become immersed in the idea of getting to know and love animals that are both new to readers, and some that are already known.