The art in this book is stunning, and worth getting the book for that alone -- but only for a young child. This book really needs to figure out its audience, as it's written like a board book for toddlers but it's about the science of light (it's recommended for grades K-2).

The illustrations show various children around the world and things that light up -- from the sun to rainbows to candles. The text is very sparse. For example, one page has the text of "Blast/Beam/Let us dream" with a picture of an astronaut in space and the sun behind her, while the next page shows two different boys looking at sunsets and the text: "Fade/Away/Cannot Stay."

This would make a lovely bedtime book for very young children and gently expose them to ideas of light sources, but then at the end there is very sophisticated text explaining the science of light and then information about cultural celebrations involving light in various religions and locations. I read this book to my 8 year-old daughter and the book was too young for her until the end, at which point it was too old (and dry) for her.

(As a side note, can we stop romanticizing sky lanterns? Yes, they are a tradition in some cultures and they are beautiful, but they are basically flaming litter that's sent into the sky. Sky lanterns burn down houses and start wildfires when they land on unfortunate families' rooftops or in dried grasses, kill and maim countless birds and animals, and all ultimately come down as trash. They are the flammable version of helium balloons, and I wish people would stop glamorizing them as they're gaining in popularity despite warnings from environmentalists and animal welfare organizations.)

All in all, this is a beautiful book with a lovely, peaceful feel to it, but I would suggest it's best suited for young children with adults reading the end notes for themselves.

Fiona rated it "nice" and then said it was fine if I deleted my ARC of it, even though she often wants to hold onto books longer and read them more before they expire. I think she would have liked it a lot when she was 2 or 3, because of the gorgeous pictures and sparse, singsong text.

I read a temporary digital ARC of this book for the purpose of review.

Our family absolutely adored this simple book. The art style was so pretty, and the pictures really let us delve into each culture. This can be a really quick read, or a nice in depth one depending on how much time your kids want to spend talking about the celebrations happening on each page.

What an incredibly stunning piece of children’s literature. Bold bright lights lighting up every page. Teaching us what the light symbolizes, where to comes from, how it works, and where to find it. I felt the short little poetic lines were beautifully matched with the illustrations.

What I really loved was how we followed children from around the world through one day to see what the light looks like where they are and how it impacts their lives

Flash and Gleam focuses on the many types of light that light up our world. From the sun to lightning, auroras to fireworks, each kind of light is luminously illustrated. A very simple rhyming text accompanies the pictures.

I really enjoyed the illustrations here. They're absolutely lovely. However, I think the description on the inside jacket of the book does it a disservice, since it isn't entirely accurate. This book is supposed to follow "a diverse group of kids", but they're only "diverse" in a cultural sense. All four able-bodied children are in heterosexual nuclear family units. Today, I think many readers are expecting a little more diversity in other areas, especially when a book advertises itself as "diverse".

There are a couple of pages of scientific facts at the end, which are interesting to read and tie into the various forms of light that are depicted in the illustrations in the main part of the book. My only quibble there is that the book refers to "the dark side" of the moon as the part that's in shadow during a quarter moon (whereas "the dark side" is usually how we refer to the part that's facing away from Earth that we can't see). This could potentially cause some confusion; it might need to be worded differently.

Definitely check this one out for the illustrations, though. I'd like to see what else Khoa Le has illustrated; she has a very pleasant style.