Mr. Ferlinghetti's Poem: Story and woodcuts    by David Frampton Order:  USA  Can Eerdmans, 2006 (2006) Hardcover     Reviewed by Kerrily Sapet The book opens to the hot sweltering summer streets of Brooklyn. On that afternoon the New York firemen come to the rescue of the city's sticky children by turning on their hoses and letting kids run through the streaming cold water. The water squirts up to the sky and all over their hot, sweaty bodies. Then the firemen go back into their firehouses and back to playing pinochle. The day is a great adventure for the city kids, especially for those with a little imagination, like Lawrence Ferlinghetti. He was one of those children. As an adult he wrote a poem about it in his most popular book of poetry, A Coney Island of the Mind. In Mr. Ferlinghetti's Poem, author David Frampton creates a tribute to Ferlinghetti's poem. Best known for influencing the Beat poets in the 1950s, Ferlinghetti watched and observed life around him, writing about both joy and sadness. He has won many awards, being honored at the 2005 National Book Awards and receiving recognition for life work enhancing the literary world. Today he runs the book store City Lights in San Francisco, California. David Frampton has built upon Ferlinghetti's simple text to create a beautiful poetic story. With Frampton's warmly colored woodcuts, the story takes on a life and time of its own. He too remembers the cooling spray from firemen's hoses. The reader not only has a sense of the history and playfulness of the poem, but Frampton also offers a wonderful biographical page about Lawrence Ferlinghetti. Note: Opinions expressed in reviews and articles on this site are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of BookLoons. Find more Kids books on our Shelves or in our book Reviews