Flashing and Gleaming with Sue Fliess and Khoa Le
May 21st, 2020 by jules
(Click to enlarge spread)
Today, I’ve a few spreads from Flash and Gleam: Light in Our World (Millbrook, March 2020), written by Sue Fliess and illustrated by Khoa Le. This is an exploration of light via a series of spare rhymes, as you can see in the spreads here — the light of fireflies, the lightning of a storm, rays of sunlight waking sleeping children, the light of a birthday candle, lights meant to heal, and much more.
Despite these everyday occurrences of light, illustrator Le also depicts a wide array of families who celebrate various religious holidays — an Indian family celebrating Diwali (the Hindu festival of lights); a family celebrating Christmas (with lights twinkling on a tree); a group of people enjoying the fireworks of the Fourth of July; a Thai family participating in a Yi Peng festival (sky lanterns alight); and a family celebrating Hanukkah (lighting a menorah). Le — who lives in Vietnam and has illustrated picture books published in a number of other countries — brings vividly colored and highly patterned artwork to these verses, as you can see here today.
The book’s backmatter includes a spread about both the science of light (text and a diagram that defines light, as well as notes on lightning, rainbows, the northern lights, fireflies, and moonlight) and a note on the celebrations and holidays included in the book.
Enjoy the spreads!
(Click to enlarge spread)
(Click to enlarge spread)
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FLASH AND GLEAM: LIGHT IN OUR WORLD. Text copyright © 2020 by Sue Fliess. Illustrations copyright © 2020 by Khoa Le. Illustrations reproduced by permission of the publisher, Millbrook Press, Minneapolis, MN.
I write this as sunlight begins to stream through the leaves and into my studio. Light: what a profound subject. The illustrations are radiant.