Books.org participates in affiliate programs including Bookshop.org and the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program. We may earn a commission from qualifying purchases made through links on this page, at no additional cost to you.
Overview
This remarkable collection of concrete poetry gives shape to light in its many forms. From the flicker of birthday candles to a flash of lightning, the powerful beam of a lighthouse to the gentle glow of a bedside lamp, light illuminates our world in wondrous ways.
Join poet Joan Bransfield Graham and artist Nancy Davis in a fantastic exploration of light, and open your eyes to an amazing new way of perceiving poetry.
Best Book of the Year pick by School Library Journal
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
Riverbank Review - Naomi Shibab Nye
What a well-lit book! Imagine poems about light shaped like a firefly, a matchstick, a campfire, a crescent moon. This stunningly delicious collection of Joan Bansfield Graham's poems about light captivates the eye as well as the ear. Read this book to the very young, right when they're learning to reach (again and again and again, if I recall) for the light switch. Read it to older children, to encourage them to experiement with word placement on the page. It will spark their batteries.
Editorials
Naomi Shibab Nye
What a well-lit book! Imagine poems about light shaped like a firefly, a matchstick, a campfire, a crescent moon. This stunningly delicious collection of Joan Bansfield Graham's poems about light captivates the eye as well as the ear. Read this book to the very young, right when they're learning to reach (again and again and again, if I recall) for the light switch. Read it to older children, to encourage them to experiement with word placement on the page. It will spark their batteries.— Riverbank Review
Publishers Weekly -
Graham (Splish Splash) reflects on the meaning and many permutations of light in 23 concrete poems. There's one set in the form of a crescent moon ("New moon/ sliver thin/ nice to see/ the night grin"), another sprinkled across a spread like fireworks. Ben Franklin and Thomas Edison even make cameo appearances. Although few of the verses possess enough descriptive candlepower or aural energy to glow on their own, artist and graphic designer Davis's ingenious typographical treatments, punctuated with witty, icon-style illustrations, make each poem shimmer. Whether sculpting words into a glowing insect ("Firefly") or conjuring an image of dancing flames between two toasting marshmallows ("Campfire"), Davis proves she is capable of visualizing the poetic spirit of language at play. Ages 4-8. (Oct.) Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.Library Journal
Gr 2-5-A vivid fusion of ingenious concrete poetry and boldly colored graphics that celebrate the many shapes and forms of light. From the joyous whoop of sunlight's "...dynamite, ring-/a-ding day" to the flash of the open camera shutter that "will spill/onto my film/to make time/stand still," readers will delight in the many images presented to the eye and to the mind. This companion volume to Graham's water-wonderful Splish Splash (Ticknor & Fields, 1994) will be equally at home in units on science, poetry, and art, and will surely inspire children. This one dazzles.-Patricia Manning, formerly at Eastchester Public Library, NY Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.From the Publisher
"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