Park, who has guided readers through Korea's history with novels such as her Newbery Medal-winning A Single Shard and When My Name Was Keoko, invites readers to try a Korean tradition with this book of 27 clever sijo poems. Aspiring young writers and those who work with them will likely embrace this new form (though it's actually quite old, dating back to the 6th century B.C.), with similarities to haiku. In her preface and in a more detailed backmatter section, the author explains that sijo, when translated into English, is composed of three lines, each with 14-16 syllables. The first line sets the topic, the second develops it and the third offers a twist. Unlike haiku, which largely confines itself to nature, sijo may explore a wide range of topics, including relationships and everyday moments. Park gives an ideal example of the quotidian transformed with her opening sijo, "Breakfast": "For this meal, people like what they like, the same every morning./ Toast and coffee. Bagel and juice. Cornflakes and milk in a white bowl./ Or--warm, soft, and delicious--a few extra minutes in bed." Others poems incorporate rhyme, such as "From the Window," which contrasts the "sparrows at the feeder each day, dull in brown and black and gray" with the brightly-hued "triple threat--a primary-colored display: cardinal, goldfinch, blue jay!" Because of the sijo form (with its surprise twist), the poems brim with humor and will have young people testing their wits as they try their hand at a few poems of their own. Banyai's pen-and-inks with splashes of color heighten the humor (as with "Tennis," in which he shows antics not often associated with on-court play). Park's backmatter also notes that sijo began as songs with musical accompaniment, often performed by women, spawning a "strong legacy of women poets." Whether fans of history, cultural study, wordplay or writing, readers will find much to mine in these pages (and if they stick with the endnotes, they'll find an extra surprise: an encore poem).--Jennifer M. Brown
