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Joan Bransfield Graham
By Lee Bennett Hopkins
This whimsy- and water-loving poet encourages children to consider each poem they encounter "an act of discovery"
Joan Bransfield Graham's captivating works of poetry celebrate the various forms of water (left) and lights.
"A great poem surprises your senses, shakes you awake, stirs your emotions and startles your imagination," says Joan Bransfield Graham.
After a career as an elementary school teacher, Joan made a big splash in the world of children's literature with Splish Splash (Houghton Mifflin, 1994). This highly praised volume features concrete poems, a poetic form where words take the shape of each poem's subject. Exuberant compositions celebrate water in various forms – from steam and snow to waterfalls and ice cubes. In one poem, a sprinkler shoots a column of words into the sky!
A fascination with water
It's not at all surprising that Joan's first book is about water. Born on October 31, l944, near the Atlantic Ocean in Wildwood Crest, NJ, she now lives next to the Pacific Ocean in Agoura Hills, CA. During her life, she has sailed on rivers, bays and oceans and camped atop a waterfall in Yosemite National Park. "I had to write about water," she says. "I have always been around it. It fascinates me." Her next book, Flicker Flash (Houghton Mifflin, 1999), centers around various forms of lights such as birthday candles, "shooting stars that blaze the dark..."
A duet between reader and writer
Joan loves visiting schools to share her passion for poetry with children. "I want children to know that poetry can help us widen our vision and our hearts. Each poem is an act of discovery. The poem should be a duet between reader and writer with a chorus of 'Oh, yes!'"
Rhymes and crimes
Mother of two grown daughters, Heather and Aimee, both television and film actresses, Joan lives with her husband, Jim, a former FBI agent. "I write rhymes, Jim fought crimes," she wittily remarks.
For further information on her life and work, including a wide variety of "Teaching Ideas," visit her website www.joangraham.com
Lee Bennett Hopkins is a distinguished poet and anthologist. Recent collections include Got Geography! (Greenwillow, 2006).
