Clive Gifford is a highly experienced journalist and author with over 170 books published and more than 800 features and stories written for adults and children.
Clive is an unusual author who likes to work in both fiction and non-fiction. Perhaps this reflects his unusual life which, so far, has seen him travel to over 70 countries, be held hostage in Colombia, go parachuting, coach several sports and run a computer games company.
He says: "What drives me more than anything else is the desire to communicate, entertain and inform through the written word."
Flags, flags everywhere! I love flags. Im 58 "in 20 minutes!" and really it's only as I get older that I appreciate what one single flag has to say. I study them all. I love the meaning that you can find in them. Some flags you can look at and think hmm, what the heck? But, when you look into the thought that went into that flag, then you can really think...yeah, I get that! For me it's not just flags, its sigils, standard bearers....standard bearers are especially brave to me. They're kind of like the drummers, or bagpipe players who walk ahead of the Army...Just playing, and representing! I'm going to give this book 5 stars because the text was decent, but as an arc, man it was rough going. The pictures were very substandard. I realise that in a book this will be improved, but why put out an arc that's so hideous? My thanks to the publisher's, and netgalley. AGAIN, TO BE CLEAR, MY ISSUE WITH THIS ARC WILL BE FIXED IN THE FORTHCOMING BOOK. They always are. Yep, I'd recommend this book. Especially if you have an interest in flags, and their origin
Well done, informative middle grade or younger book on flags of the world. As the title says, terrific flag facts.
I had a lot of fun reading this, and had a few aha moments.
This is the history of flags, all the flags of the world, and origins of some of the flags, as well as famous flag planting, such as Edmund HIllery and his Shirpa Tenzing Norgay, planing their four flags at the top of Everest.
Or the idea of having flags for your professional guild.
The flags of the world are done by continents. Very well organized, and easy to find out just about everything you might want to know about flags.
Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review.
A wonderful colorful educational book filled with information about facts, trivia and stories about flags. I found the pages fun to look at and intriguing to read. I can see using this with children for background and also to create new flags at any time.
I remember trying to use flags on a soccer/football field as a linesman and it was difficult to remember which way to lift it for the referee to know which team should have the ball. I looked at the semaphore information for alphabet use and decided that would take a great deal of time and effort to become proficient in. I enjoyed the bits of history that were tucked in here and there and actually learned a few terms and what they meant as I made my way from cover to cover.
Even though flags change from time to time this would definitely make a wonderful gift for a child or teacher.
Thank you to NetGalley and Quarto Publishing-QEB for the ARC – This is my honest review.
Wowee wow, is this colorful book filled with everything you’d want to know about flags — 268 of them! Featuring flags from every country across the globe, plus fab background stories, an exercise to design your own flag, and a fun quiz. 5 of 5 stars.
Thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the ARC. Opinions are mine. Pub Date 28 Aug 2018. #RaiseTheFlag #NetGalley
"Raise the Flag" is a comprehensive book about flags. Anything from trivial general knowledge, history/backgrounds of flags of few selected countries, to uses of flags and etc., there are definitely so much more being offered here. The book has amazing graphics and great information that would charm young children who are interested in learning more about flags.
Many different countries share similar coloring schemes/themes and the similarities sometimes cause confusion. "Raise the Flag" manages to explain well and helps to retain the information well. No longer need to force memorize those flags which look almost identical.
Since the book is written for children, the selections of counties being discussed are limited, however.
This is a great book to own and would make a good investment since the book could be used in numerous ways to engage children from all ages to the topic. Even adults could learn a thing or two about flags! I highly recommend it.
RAISE THE FLAG is an all-encompassing introduction to vexillology. (Yes, I did learn that term from reading this book.) From national flags, to sports, to communication, every use of flags is included. As the subtitle states, this book is full of interesting and informative facts, stories, and trivia. I learned a lot from it.
The only flaw I perceived in this book actually had nothing to do with flags. It is two idealized definitions of communism: "all workers are valued equally" with the discussion of the Soviet flag and "all property is shared" with the discussion of the North Korean flag. These definitions are incompatible with the reality of communism in these countries: Holodomor, gulags, and sociopolitical discrimination.
Other than that, I really enjoyed this book and recommend it to anyone interested in flags.
Thank you to Quarto Publishing Group and Net Galley for letting me preview a digital arc.
My Thoughts on ‘Raise the Flag: Terrific flag facts, stories and trivia!’:
trivia, uses and more:
This book is exactly what it says it is in its title – full of terrific flag facts, stories and trivia! It includes a lot of various fun facts like flag fails(for example, the US flag was once flown at an international meeting of national leaders with the wrong number of stars!) and a quiz at the end of the book to check what you learned and what you observed(!).
Did you know the names for the different parts of a flag (or that a flag had parts)? There is so much more you can learn as you read this book. You find out about many different types of flags and learn how flags are/were used in communicating – in sports, for messaging in the high seas, during war times, and more. You learn about the symbolism of flags – based on their designs as well as on how they are flown or moved - semaphore, anyone?
history and geography and more trivia:
It also includes the history of flags in general as well as some more specific stories about some flags. They are so much more than pieces of fabric, as you well know – they have cool origin stories, are treasured and respected by the people who raise these flags, literally (whether it is a flag for an organization, a team, a city, a country, or anything else), and they have specific ways they can be used, displayed, folded, and unfolded.
The flags of the world are organized by their continents, with some of the country flags highlighted for each continent. These highlighted flags provide us with very interesting stories to read. I loved learning about different flag designers across the world, from a 15-year old art student in New Guinea to a designer who had to design his country’s flag in a week’s time!
In addition to all this information, the book also includes celebrations for flags held across the world, and so many more interesting facts that you can discover for yourself. The book also includes activities that kids can work on – like designing a flag (one that is their own, that represents them), and ends with a glossary of terms used in the book.
An aside: A caveat to note: Some country flags were not shown in the book though it describes it as ‘every nation’; on checking further about those countries, I noticed they are recognized differently by the UN (though not always the case for all included/excluded sovereign states) but it is a minor caveat.
In Summary: ‘Raise the Flag’ is flag-tastic (as it states in a chapter title and I agree!). The amount of information contained in this book astounded me! It is a wonderful learning resource for history and geography units in school and classrooms. It can also make a great addition to home libraries with so much to discover 🙂
Rating: A Reading Level: 8 years and above Reread Level: 5/5
Disclaimer: Thank You #NetGalley for the DRC of this book. The opinions are my own.
Raise the Flag: Terrific Flag Facts, Stories, and Trivia! by Clive Gifford, illustrated by Tim Bradford. PICTURE BOOK/NON-FICTION. QEB Publishing (The Quarto Group), 2018. $15. 9781682973387
BUYING ADVISORY: EL (K-3), EL, MS - ADVISABLE
AUDIENCE APPEAL: AVERAGE
This book is divided up into bite size pieces of information on flags. No topic in this book takes more than a two page spread, making all the information short and concise. Some pages tackle the design of the flag, while others cover the history of certain symbols used on flags. There are pages on the history of flags and pages with geography and corresponding flags. The book contains some photography, but mostly illustrations.
This reads like a basic trivia or fact book, but with more depth, given it is all one topic - flags. My favorite pages were the pages on flags that look similar and why that is and what sets them apart. I never felt like I got a handle of the organization of the book since the maps and corresponding flags are spread out and interspersed with history and descriptions. That inability to organize myself was not a deal breaker for enjoyment. Since it reads so much like a fact book, that flow was unnecessary.
This book does exactly what it says on the cover – gives you flag facts, stories and trivia. It is packed full of interesting information and is the sort of book that can be picked up, delved into, poured over and something new discovered every time. Did you know that the flag at the top of Canada’s Peace Tower is only flown for a day and then given away to a member of the public?
The book begins by looking at flag design from their earliest use to the present day, the parts of a flag and the history of them including links with knights and heraldry. There follows chapters covering each continent showing individual country flags, together with national, regional and local flags, and detailing their development. Flags at sea, flags for communication, flags in sport, flags at the Poles and on the moon … nothing is left out of this comprehensive guide.
The pages are a mix of quirky and fun illustrations, drawings, photographs and maps. The text is clear and broken into segments with sub-headings. Each page deals with a new topic making the contents accessible and it is all printed on strong paper with muted coloured backgrounds. There is also a quiz, glossary and index. Definitely more than your usual flag book.
Full marks for this book, for doing just what I wanted – and more. I grew up with a book with the world's flags in, which is perfectly redundant now, considering the new countries and changes made since my day. This seems totally current, and delves into all the continents and their national flags – but also so much else. The trophyism of planting flags in extremities like the Poles and on Everest, semaphore, flag signalling in sports, the people who actually design the flags themselves – all are given their own chapters, and they're not the expected lame box-outs, either. The book is also great at discussing the derivation of the flags, the symbolism of them and so on. As a result some of the countries get much more attention than others, but I think it's fair to say that the more unusually patterned and decorated ones deserve more time than your bog standard colours. I felt this book hit every nail square on the head, and if you think your child will require a copy for fun and trivia, and to discover the world through esoteric means, then go for it. Certainly school libraries need a copy.
The type of book kids will pour over for hours. Fun trivia, colorful layout. I wish Gifford had included a bibliography or source notes. A bigger problem, particularly for some international schools, are choices he made about what flags to include or not include. For example, Palestine and Taiwan are not included (while other disputed areas such as Kosovo are.) Still, this is a fun book for browsing; just don't use it for research. Based on an ARC received through NetGalley.
I was sent a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.
This was a great book about flag - surprise, surprise! Honestly though, this is a great book to get any middle grader interested in geography, a particular country or, why not, FLAGS!
It was really informative, but it delivered the information in a really playful way, without being dull. I admit a bit more humour here and there could make this one even better, but it's still a lot of fun nonetheless!
I loved this book! I've been getting into flags recently so this book was rather interesting. The reason I took a star of was there was a lot of stories about people discovering flags which I wasnt really expecting
When I went to school, we learnt the flags of each country, I don't think its done anymore, more's the pity. This is a very interesting book, some of the flags have changed since my schooldays, and there are new ones, but what I really found interesting was the historical facts. The illustrations make it really interesting, written more for a young audience but very interesting to both children and adults alike. I really recommend this book
Lovely book - great mix of facts and trivia. I really like the illustrations. This is a good book to read either with a child, or for them to dip in and out of independently. A fun way to introduce history and geography!
I requested this book for my son who has a keen interest in flags since doing a school topic on them last year. The bright cover suggested it would be perfect for him and it really was.
The colourful illustrations and interesting facts made for a great read together. We were able to talk about the facts as we read them and use them as a jumping point to learn more about each country.
I would definitely recommend this book and will be looking out for a paperback copy to add to our family bookshelf.
An excellent book to introduce geography to children! Well organized, colorful and filled with information about flags and little bits of trivia. This would make a great addition to a home or school library.
Thank you NetGalley and Quarto Publishing Group - QEB for an advanced copy of this book.
I mainly asked for this book to see if it would work with my curriculum because I home school and I can assure you that it will! It's a beautiful book with a lot of great information, lots that I didn't even know, and it's easy enough that the kids could read and be engaged with it too. This could be an incredibly helpful teaching tool. 5 out of 5 stars.