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Sciku: The Wonder of Science – in Haiku!
Sciku brings together more than four hundred revealing, poignant, witty haiku on scientific subjects.
Written by students at Camden School for Girls, these poems show that while science gave us the atom bomb, the laptop, and the artificial heart, it remains enigmatic and mind-bogglingly beautiful.
Sciku is edited by Simon Flynn, author of The Science Magpie and a science teacher at Camden School for Girls in London. The girls who contributed to this book range from the ages of eleven to eighteen.
Written by students at Camden School for Girls, these poems show that while science gave us the atom bomb, the laptop, and the artificial heart, it remains enigmatic and mind-bogglingly beautiful.
Sciku is edited by Simon Flynn, author of The Science Magpie and a science teacher at Camden School for Girls in London. The girls who contributed to this book range from the ages of eleven to eighteen.
- GenresPoetry
176 pages, Paperback
First published November 6, 2014
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
August 17, 2018
Synopsis:
Sciku is all about science, but in haiku format. Science as a subject has intrigued us, exasperated us, or plain baffled us. But, whether as a subject or not, it has always stayed with us, continues to stay with us, in our day-to-day dealings, an integral part of our life. This book brings together students of The Camden School for Girls, together with their teacher, who have converted (often mundane) scientific topics into interesting, and some hilarious, haikus.
Review:
As the foreword suggested, I really was amazed, amused, and absorbed in equal measure. Science, when shortened and clubbed with another word, always gives sexy names. Like Sci-fi, this is Sci-ku.
Some may not be palatable.
But damn that to hell, they are
readable as well as enjoyable.
I loved this unique concept. This is my first full-fledged dose of haiku. Before this, I have only read some of them here and there, mostly on the internet (blogs). But this would be the first book on Haiku that I have laid my eyes upon. It was really interesting to read, and I want to thank the teachers who have edited it (I wish I had teachers like that in my school!).
Some are of the long form too, almost like a poem, but with haiku stanzas. I have shared one of them, which is relevant to our times as well. In fact, many haikus in this book have been written in relation to then published research findings, news reports, etc. How ingenious these students are! While some students' names are mentioned, others have been contributed under the disguise of anonymity.
This book will make you look at science from a new angle.
P.S. This was a book which I kept re-issuing from the library. Finally, I got around to reading it as a part of Bookstagrammer Aayushi's wonderful challenge #slayshortbooks (Slay Short Books). She has a lovely account. You can find her at https://www.instagram.com/_penandpapers/ . Psst…the challenge is on till the end of August. You can join too!
Can you suggest the go to sites/books for some interesting haiku?
Originally posted on:
https://sassyshaina.wordpress.com/201...
Sciku is all about science, but in haiku format. Science as a subject has intrigued us, exasperated us, or plain baffled us. But, whether as a subject or not, it has always stayed with us, continues to stay with us, in our day-to-day dealings, an integral part of our life. This book brings together students of The Camden School for Girls, together with their teacher, who have converted (often mundane) scientific topics into interesting, and some hilarious, haikus.
Review:
As the foreword suggested, I really was amazed, amused, and absorbed in equal measure. Science, when shortened and clubbed with another word, always gives sexy names. Like Sci-fi, this is Sci-ku.
Some may not be palatable.
But damn that to hell, they are
readable as well as enjoyable.
I loved this unique concept. This is my first full-fledged dose of haiku. Before this, I have only read some of them here and there, mostly on the internet (blogs). But this would be the first book on Haiku that I have laid my eyes upon. It was really interesting to read, and I want to thank the teachers who have edited it (I wish I had teachers like that in my school!).
Some are of the long form too, almost like a poem, but with haiku stanzas. I have shared one of them, which is relevant to our times as well. In fact, many haikus in this book have been written in relation to then published research findings, news reports, etc. How ingenious these students are! While some students' names are mentioned, others have been contributed under the disguise of anonymity.
This book will make you look at science from a new angle.
P.S. This was a book which I kept re-issuing from the library. Finally, I got around to reading it as a part of Bookstagrammer Aayushi's wonderful challenge #slayshortbooks (Slay Short Books). She has a lovely account. You can find her at https://www.instagram.com/_penandpapers/ . Psst…the challenge is on till the end of August. You can join too!
Can you suggest the go to sites/books for some interesting haiku?
Originally posted on:
https://sassyshaina.wordpress.com/201...
November 15, 2014
I was a little uncertain about what this book would be like. Probably the closest thing I'd come across before was Marcus Chown and Govert Schilling's Tweeting the Universe, which came across as one of those projects that works better as an idea than it does in practice. But, in fact, this collection of haiku on science subjects by the students of Camden School for Girls proved surprisingly enjoyable and thought provoking.
There were distinct differences between different subjects - and there was a huge range of styles and content. Being low on appreciation of high culture I particularly enjoyed the humorous haiku, but it was interesting that the physics and cosmology topics seemed to work better than the biology. This may be a poetic reflection of Rutherford's old taunt to biologists that 'all science is either physics or stamp collecting' - all too often the biology topics were primarily establishing labels, where in the physics poems the sharp limits of the form seemed to fit well with the stark beauty of the topic. Take this one, for instance, titled Particles:
We huddle in bricks
We dance around in water
We fly in the sky
If I want to be picky, there was a spot of cheating and poems that didn't quite ring true. A good few times the poem consisted of not one but multiple haiku, which strikes me as more like a conventional poem with a set of verses than the true form. And when presented with a line like 'A lump of quarks and protons' I couldn't help think 'but protons are quarks', by which point the magic was lost. (And it's kryptonite that kills Superman, not krypton which was the name of his home planet - to be fair, the editor acknowledges this.)
One problem here is that I am not a great poetry reader - so it may be that my assessment of the quality of the work was a bit like asking someone who eats at a fast food joint every night what they think of a new Michelin starred restaurant. But I thought the quality of the writing, given the age of the contributors, was surprisingly good. You can tell from the desperation of my complaint about krypton that there's not much wrong with this lovely little collection, which would make a great gift or dip in book.
There were distinct differences between different subjects - and there was a huge range of styles and content. Being low on appreciation of high culture I particularly enjoyed the humorous haiku, but it was interesting that the physics and cosmology topics seemed to work better than the biology. This may be a poetic reflection of Rutherford's old taunt to biologists that 'all science is either physics or stamp collecting' - all too often the biology topics were primarily establishing labels, where in the physics poems the sharp limits of the form seemed to fit well with the stark beauty of the topic. Take this one, for instance, titled Particles:
We huddle in bricks
We dance around in water
We fly in the sky
If I want to be picky, there was a spot of cheating and poems that didn't quite ring true. A good few times the poem consisted of not one but multiple haiku, which strikes me as more like a conventional poem with a set of verses than the true form. And when presented with a line like 'A lump of quarks and protons' I couldn't help think 'but protons are quarks', by which point the magic was lost. (And it's kryptonite that kills Superman, not krypton which was the name of his home planet - to be fair, the editor acknowledges this.)
One problem here is that I am not a great poetry reader - so it may be that my assessment of the quality of the work was a bit like asking someone who eats at a fast food joint every night what they think of a new Michelin starred restaurant. But I thought the quality of the writing, given the age of the contributors, was surprisingly good. You can tell from the desperation of my complaint about krypton that there's not much wrong with this lovely little collection, which would make a great gift or dip in book.
December 27, 2021
A charming collection of haikus exploring science classes from a high schoolers perspective. Some really funny and clever ones in the mix too! Well done to everyone who contributed, and to the teachers who came up with the idea and made it happen. I especially liked the Teletubbies poem!
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews