A review by backonthealex
Jabberwalking by Juan Felipe Herrera

4.0

This is the perfect book to pair with Sydell Rosenberg's H is for Haiku, because what is jabberwalking other than writing, drawing, journaling and walking at the same time as you "burble" what you see around you: "Scribble what you see/Scribble what you hear/ Scribble out the electric Jabber worms crawling out of you head & eyes/Scribble what that dude skating is hollering/Scribble everything that goes on in the cafeteria/Scribble what all the teachers say in the halls... According to Herrera, if we follow this method, we can all be poets, even the least poetic among us. Inspired by Lewis Carroll's poem "Jabberwocky," Herrera includes some of the words that Carroll made up for his work, and gives them new meaning, for example, a burble = a poem. Herrera divides this book into 15 instructional chapters, the content of which zigs and zags over the pages, accompanied by his drawings, and though seeming to be as nonsensical as Carroll's poem at first, they actually provide the reader with inspiration and instruction. My Kiddo came home for the holidays before heading off the China again, and announced that she was now experimenting with writing poetry. So, I gave Jabberwalking to her to see what she thought about it. Well, long story short, she loved it and won't give it back, she says she has put on her "Jabber Booots" and plans to jabberwalk in China. Need I say more about this unique book?