Customer Reviews

Why We Have Day and Night

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This is a short kids book that has two things going for it - science, and the beautiful, yet simple, drawings of the wonderful Edward Gorey. What a wonderful way to introduce children to the realities of the universe. This will take a place of pride among my son's books. He's only 16 months, not quite really ready for this, but I'd say around the start of school-age would be a great time to introduce this book to your child, or to present as a gift. Bravo on reintroducing a new generation to this lost classic.

The lights suddenly go out, and three children who were busy playing begin to speculate why, giving nonsensical ideas so common to the way young kid's minds work. The fourth and oldest child chimes in and tries to explain about the Earth's rotation and the sun and why it gets dark at night. Then they reject the notion and share another nonsense idea that they think happened.

Being a blend of real science explained in a way that kids can understand and mostly nonsense this will appeal to children and adults who have a sense of humor. Anyone wanting pure nonfiction science picture books and to only discuss things in factual serious ways will not like this book.

Perhaps some would say this book is weird, when really it's just funny and telling realistic ways that children's minds work. I appreciate the silliness as it's a reminder of the fresh, uninhibited way that the minds of curious children work. Children outgrow that way of thinking and talking when they get older and begin to fear criticism or ridicule by others from what they say, so enjoy that phase while your children are in it.

As an adult, I'm thinking about this book a bit deeper. I find it funny that adults also sometimes fall prey to this line of thinking. They don't know something, they ponder on how and why it is and come up with false notions and crazy ideas sometimes a worst case scenario. When facts are shared to explain it, they sometimes don't want to believe them and go back to believing the nonsense. They hold onto their original ideas or go looking for even more explanations which are disconnected from the true facts.

Edward Gorey illustrated this children's picture book and his style and illustrations makes the book fun. Fans of the artwork of Gorey will especially enjoy this book. Originally published in 1970, this book was reprinted in 2011.

Disclosure: I received a review copy of this book from LibraryThing.com to publish a review on that site but was under no obligation to give it a favorable review.