STORY: This is a poetry book that is split into 4 themes (nature, cats and other pets, feelings and a bit more personal poems) ending with a section with questions for the reader, the poetry presenter and the poetry writer. The back of the book includes some lined pages, inviting the reader to write their own poems.
The themes of the poems in this book are accessible to all readers, though definitely geared more towards adults. Although they are written in selkokieli, they are lyrical in nature and the author's images and thoughts and feelings are expressed in full, evoking landscapes, seasons and memories in the reader's mind.
LANGUAGE: Most pages contain 2-4 shorts poems per page and the size of the book is wider than it is tall, allowing the words to spread across the page and be held easily in the hands. The vocabulary is made up of everyday words, so even though this is a poetry book, the higher Finnish level reader will already recognize most of the words while the less experienced in Finnish reader will learn useful vocabulary to apply to their own life.
I recommend this books for adults, though all of the poems are family friendly. Because of the variety and accessibility of the poems, I recommend this book to all skill levels, from A1.1 on up.
CHARACTERS: While there are no characters per se in this book, the author's words as narrator and poetess are the most important in this case. Although we do not know the author's background, the introduction explains that she writes the book to express herself, in spite of having reading and writing disabilities.
Delightfully, I found that the author has her own blog at.http://lukihairikko.blogspot.com/ where more of her poetry can be found. I hope that she is someday inspired to write more poetry books accessible to all.
WHY YOU SHOULD READ THIS BOOK: This book is great for the reader who doesn't have the time to invest in a hundred page plus novel written in selkokieli. It's perfect to put down and pick back up, savoring each poem, although if you have the same experience I had while reading, you'll be reading ahead to discover more great poetry. It truly is accessible to all, and everyone will identify with the passing of the seasons, the company of a pet and going through good days and bad days and the people that surround us. The questions in the back also make this a great book for a classroom or discussion group. An enthusiastic 4/5.
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