Flicker Flash - Hardcover

Graham, Joan Bransfield

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 039590501X ISBN 13: 9780395905012

Publisher: HMH Books for Young Readers, 1999

Synopsis

Light can be dynamic, exciting, dramatic, comforting, fascinating, and welcoming. Turn on the light and open this book to see and feel the energy, emotion, and surprise of light in its many forms! Flicker Flash is a poetic exploration of a mutable yet omnipresent part of the world around us. From the flicker of birthday candles to a flash of lightning, from the bold bright sun to the calm full moon, from the steady beams that pulse from a lighthouse to the glow of a lamp that illuminates the pages of a book lovingly held by a child, all forms of light are given shape in this remarkable collection of poetry. Young readers' eyes will be opened to an amazing new way of perceiving poetry in everyday life.

Additional awards:

Top Ten Children's Books of 1999, Dr. Peggy Sharp Bill Martin, Jr. Picture Book Award Nominee, Kansas Florida Children's Book Award 2001 Nominee Washington Children's Choice Picture Book Award 2002 Nominee Judy Freeman's 40 Favorite Poetry Books for Children, Reading is Fundamental (RIF) California Collection 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006

About this title

About the Author

Joan Bransfield Graham, a former teacher, has published poetry for children and adults. She grew up in New Jersey on the coast of the Atlantic Ocean.

Review

"A vivid fusion of ingenious concrete poetry and boldly colored graphics that celebrate the many shapes and forms of light. . . . This one dazzles." School Library Journal, Starred

"There are so many ways to celebrate light, and Graham sings many of them in this collection of shaped, rhymed poems. . . . This will bewitch readers with both sound and shape." Booklist, ALA

"In a follow-up to SPLISH SPLASH, Graham's collection of poems about water, the twenty-three concrete poems in this collection celebrate light in forms familiar to young children, such as a lightning bolt, a porch light, birthday candles, a refrigerator light, the sun, and the full moon. Graphic design is the outstanding feature here, as the typography is skillfully used to intensify the shapes of the poems, not only with size and placement but with color as well, so that the words themselvesbecome part of the surrounding illustration. The words of the poem "Flashlight," for example, are printed boldly in yellow, and each line grows progressively larger to reflect the flashlight beam extending from the hand of a child walking through the dark: "Flashlight / click / one flick / I am the SUN, / I chase the shadows / one by one, growing scary, / jagged, tall-with brilliant beams / I'll MELT them ALL!" Because seeing the poems here is at least as important as hearing them, this volume should have particular appeal to visual learners." Horn Book

About this edition

• Publisher: HMH Books for Young Readers
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 039590501X
• ISBN 13: 9780395905012
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 4
• Number of pages: 32
• Illustrator: Davis Nancy