Customer Reviews

Faces of the Moon

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Faces of the moon, a beautifully written and illustrated story of the lunar cycle is IMHO, destined to become a children's classic. It is the rare author that can take what can be an admittedly confusing and mundane concept (lunar phases) and present it in such a way that the reader is not only entertained but attains an intuitive understanding of the subject matter. Very highly reccomended for children of all ages who have yet to lose their sense wonder of the world around them.

"Faces of the Moon" is an educational book for children age 6 and up with verse descriptions of each phase of the moon, along with appropriately shaped cutout moon images on the pages to highlight the shape of that moon phase. Full of handy facts and hints, including the approximate time of night or day each phase of the moon rises or sets, "Faces of the Moon" catalogs the monthly changes of the moon in a logical progression that is carefully tied to full page color illustrations. A fun part of "Faces of the Moon" is the Moon Memo-Rhymes at the end, which is a list of fun ways to remember Moon facts. The eight phases of the moon are shown labeled and circling the half -darkened earth, to illustrate the role of the light of the sun in the showing of the moon's phases. "Faces of the Moon" is sure to enchant and inform both children and parents with its charming, imaginative format.

Here is a graceful explanation of how and why the shape of the moon seems to change over time. Scientific fact is presented as a pleasing story in verses that work equally well for reading aloud or for independent reading. Smaller type on the page for each phase tells approximate times that the moon is visible at that stage. Tabs at the edge of the pages let the reader turn right to a particular shape. At the end of the book, a series of rhymed couplets offer "Moon Memo-Rhymes" to help remember moon facts. The presentation dispels a common misconception that phases are caused by earth's shadow crossing the moon; in fact, they are the amount of reflected sunlight that is visible according to the moon's position in relation to the earth. A particular strength of this book is the ingenious use of die-cut holes in the pages, allowing different parts of the full moon to show. The result is successful and satisfying.

This has cut-outs so that you can watch the lunar phases as they wax and wane. It also includes easy-to-find tabs displaying the lunar phase on each page. It includes at what part of day the moon can been seen when its in that phase. What a great concept!

This is a great book all about the moon. The inside is set up with tabs so you can quickly check out various stages of the moon. I have had a great time sharing this with my son.

The changing face of the moon is often a wondrous awe-inspiring vision to look at. The changing shapes are beautiful, but what do they mean? Each "face (or lunar phase)" represents a time frame of twenty-nine days. Sometimes when we look at the moon we only see a small sliver, or crescent, while other times we can see a full moon. It seems so mysterious, but there is really a very simple explanation for these faces. When the sun shines on the moon "it paints her shadowed face with light to make the phase we see." When the Earth orbits around the sun we can watch the changes in the sky.

"Each changing face (or lunar phase)
repeats each nine-and-twenty days:
from thin to thick, from dark to light;
sometimes in day, sometimes at night."

In this marvelous book you will learn about the new moon. It appears to be invisible because it is between Earth and the sun and the "sunlit side is turned away." The Waxing Crescent, or growing moon, is next in this marvelous cycle. It is like a little crescent sliver. You will read and learn about the First Quarter Moon, the Waxing Gibbous Moon, the Full Moon, the Waning Gibbous Moon, the Last Quarter Moon, the Waning Crescent Moon and when they rise and set.

This is an amazing book that both young and old will enjoy and learn from. The rhyming scheme is perfect and doesn't miss a beat as it tells us the story of the lunar phases of the moon. The set up of the book is as dazzling as a full moon with the die cut sections (including the cover) representing the individual phase and illustrated tabs so the reader can easily flip back and forth at his or her leisure. In the back of the book is more information on the connections between the Moon, the Earth and the Sun and "Moon Memo-Rhymes" that make learning moon facts easy and fun. This is an astronomically fun, informative book on Moon phases you won't want to pass up!

This is a good book but I have to give it a lower score because the author uses the same misleading word, "shadows", several times.
I'm convinced that Bob Crelin knows exactly how phases come about - after all, he designed the really cool Moon Gazer's Wheel that allows us to figure out what phase we can observe during any given day/night at any given time. He also explains phases correctly in this book.
What he calls the "shadowed face" is generally called the dark part of the Moon or simply its night side; that's the same on Earth where we call the night side dark or night but never shadow. I know what he means (the Moon's night side is in its own shadow) and he and I know that (I'm an astronomer). But to the lay person, using the word shadow is misleading because they interpret as meaning the Earth's shadow (which it is not - Earth's shadow only ever plays a role when it causes a lunar eclipse on the full moon about every six months).
Anyway, the way I fixed my book is that I took some white tape and wrote on it:
(page 4) 'and paints her "darkened" face' instead of shadowed,
(page 6) 'light and "darkness" change' instead of shadows,
(page 19) 'not a "dark part" to be found' instead of shadow,
(page 21) 'the "dark sides" start - on Moon's most western part' instead of shadows,
(page 30) 'Half of the Moon is in sunlight, while the other half is "dark".' instead of in shadow.

An excellent book, Faces of the Moon provides a clear description of lunar phases. When an author uses novelty to explain an often difficult concept, everyone learns and enjoys too. I use this outstanding book with 2nd graders when I visit their classrooms and they create phases of the moon using Oreo cookies. They understand waxing and waning phases as I read the book while they create their cookie phases.

Following the moon through its month-long orbit around the earth, from a new phase and a waxing crescent to a last phase and a waning crescent, Bob Crelin tells the monthly journey of lunar orbit through rhyming couplets and linocut illustrations. A fun book for children who love to find out: look at the pages and take a trip around the earth. This book is perfect for children ages 5-8.