Celebrating the Disgusting Side of Nature with Poetry (Naturally). A Haiku, Ew! Interview with Lynn Brunelle

I don’t want to alarm you but 2024? A shockingly SHOCKINGLY strong year for poetry. I’ve read the entries and it’s just astounding. Folks are coming up with all kinds of innovative verse for young people in myriad ways. I mean, just take haiku alone! In 2024 we’re seeing books like Haiku, Ew! by Lynn Brunelle, illustrated by Julia Patton (and out April 2nd). Now I know it’s not April/Poetry Month yet, but there’s no law saying we can’t start early, eh? Today, we’re talking with Lynn about poetry, the appeal of the gross and disgusting, and why she gets my 2024 Backmatter of the Year Award.

But first? A quick synopsis of what you’re getting yourself into when you read this book:

“Nature is beautiful! It’s magnificent! It’s amazing! And it’s also super gross!Fourteen hilariously icky haiku present the grosser side of nature. Check out flamingos that keep cool by pooping on their legs. And butterflies that emerge from oozy caterpillar soup. The haiku are accompanied by additional facts that will delight—and disgust—readers of all ages.”

Fact-filled haiku. That I should live to see the day…

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Betsy Bird: Hi, Lynn! Hey, thank you so much for answering some of my questions today about your deliciously disgusting HAIKU, EW! Your book combines two things I’m particularly fond of: poetry books for kids, and overwhelmingly disgusting books for kids. Now in your book you happen to mention that you got the idea for this book while standing under a whale. Care to elaborate a bit more on that?

Lynn Brunelle: It’s true! I was standing in one of my favorite places—under the Great Blue Whale at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. I had planned to meet my cousin Matthew there but was early. So I started looking around. Honestly those displays under the whale are so dusty and bare, I thought they were exhibits that weren’t being used. But NO! I was wrong. That barren dustiness WAS the exhibit and I started reading about the marine snow at the bottom of the sea. Doesn’t that sound lovely? Well, it’s not. Marine snow is dead skin cells and poop and dead fish that floats down to the sea floor. Some animals have the unlucky misfortune to eat this stuff to survive.

It was eye-opening, beautiful, informative and pretty darn gross.

Matthew arrived and I made him read it and he, too was fascinated then repulsed. Just like I was. It was written so beautifully and it was so gross. So EW! I whipped up a Haiku on the spot and Haiku, EW! Was born.

BB: The book does a nice job of distinguishing a haiku, which has the job of considering the beauty of nature, from a haiku, ew, which considers both its beauty and its gut-churning grossness. I noticed that in your haiku, ews you often have two lines dedicated to the loveliness of your subject with the third reserved for the gross part. Was that how you constructed it? Was there a trial and error in getting the process down?

LB: Haiku is all about revering the beauty of nature in measured bits. It’s a numbers game, right? Five beats, seven beats and five beats again.

That’s not a lot of poetic real estate but it’s enough to show awe and curiosity and then reveal the gross twist of it all. There really is such coolness and beauty in these disgusting sides of nature. Especially when you get to know the science behind it all.

I wanted to establish respect, curiosity and awe and then a good hit of EW.

BB: You’ve got a lot of the greatest hits here, from hagfish to baby koalas (if you know, you know). So what animals were in the running but didn’t make the cut? I know you had to have had a small lists of almosts.

LB: There sure is plenty of material out there! I mean there’s a whole world of plants that want to dissolve and eat animals. There are insects you wouldn’t believe and of course blood-sucking bats and bacterial worlds that live in your teeth and armpits.

BB: My compliments on your backmatter. You do something with a list of the creatures included in the book at the end that I have never seen anyone do before. Essentially you put within the animals’ sections, links to websites for more reading and a particularly well-curated list of recommended readalike titles. The books you list are really above par amazing. I hereby hand you my Favorite Backmatter of the Year Award. How did you come up with it?

LB: I am honored! Thank you! I think the haikus and the explanations are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to discovering whole new worlds. I just want kids to know that if you dig a little deeper there is a treasure chest of information available about our beautiful and sometimes disgusting world.

BB: Gotta give it up for the art by Julia Patton. Were you familiar with her before she worked on this book? How do you feel about the end product?

LB: I was not familiar with her work, but she was the perfect choice! I LOVE her illustrations so much. They’re fun, informative and funny, too.

BB: Finally, what else do you have in the works? Any more poetry? Any more grossness?

LB: I have a few books coming out this year Life After Whale from Holiday House which does a deep dive into the life and death of a blue whale and how when she dies, she starts off a whole flurry of nutrients that support a changing ecosystem. It’s fascinating stuff. (And it has its grossness. Bone-sucking zombie worms anyone?)

I have a constellation book coming out from Odd Dot Pop-Up Planetarium that shows kids how to find the constellations and gives them the stories behind the stars. It has a star wheel in the cover and the last spread is a die-cut pop up so you an put your flashlight under it and shine the night sky on your ceiling and go star watching wherever you are.

As far as pure poetry, I am kicking around some Limer-ICKS.  As one does.

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As one does.

As a special treat, please enjoy this world premiere of the book trailer for this title:

And I would be amiss in not directing your attention to some video clips of Lynn’s science experiments for kids on the New Day Northwest show. There’s no direct connection to Haiku, Ew! except that it’s science and deeply fun. You can see one here, one here, and one here:

Thanks to Megan Ciskowski and the folks at Lerner for putting this together, and to Lynn for answering all my questions today. Haiku, Ew! is out everywhere April 2nd, just in time for Poetry Month. Grab a gross little copy soon!

Filed under: Interviews