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Searching... Salem Main Library | J 811.54 Singer 2011 | Searching... Unknown |
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Summary
Summary
Mysterious and evocative, the full moon is the most celebrated phase of the earth's only natural satellite. Around the world, people and other living things interact with and are affected by the full moon in fascinating ways. Sailors set out to sea on the high tides the full moon causes. Insects and migrating birds are guided by its brilliant light. Families dance, sing, and feast at full moon festivals, while traders buy and sell camels. Corals reproduce, wolves howl, and children dream of being astronauts.
In this poetic exploration of full moon science, celebrations, beliefs and illusions, Marilyn Singer and Julia Cairns take us on a whirlwind international tour. Along the way we visit Canada, Israel, Morocco, India, China, Australia, and more as we learn about the many ways people welcome and honour Earth's wondrous full moon.
Author Notes
Marilyn Singer was born in the Bronx, New York, on October 3, 1948, and lived most of her early life in North Massapequa on Long Island. She attended Queens College, City University of New York as an English major and education student, and for her junior year, attended Reading University, in England. She holds a bachelor's degree in English from Queens and a MA in Communications from New York University. Marilyn Singer had been teaching English in New York City high schools for several years when she began writing in 1974. Initially, she wrote film notes, catalogues, teacher's guides and filmstrips. She also began looking into magazine writing. Her article proposals were not very successful, but she did manage to have some of her poetry published. Then one day she penned a story featuring talking insects she'd made up when she was eight. Encouraged by the responses she got, she wrote more stories and in 1976 her first book, The Dog Who Insisted He Wasn't, was published.
Since then, Marilyn has published more than 50 books for children and young adults. In addition to a rich collection of fiction picture books, Singer has also produced a wide variety of nonfiction works for young readers as well as several poetry volumes in picture book format. Additionally, Singer has edited volumes of short stories for young adult readers, including Stay True: Short Stories for Strong Girls and I Believe in Water: Twelve Brushes with Religion.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (5)
School Library Journal Review
Gr 3-6-Starting and ending in New York City, this book takes readers full circle on a 17-poem journey that celebrates the rising of the full moon around the globe. Singer's poetry presents a world of science facts, cultural events, and some of the unusual customs that surround the cyclical occurrence. Her poems create marvelous pictures. She personifies Manhattan's Broadway moon, "It waits behind skyscrapers,/a brilliant actor in the wings,/ready for its monthly debut," and describes the monthly optical illusion in Broome, Australia, "Its glow builds a magic staircase from mudflats to the sky." Along the way, titles invite readers to celebrate the "Moon Festival" in Hong Kong, a "Camel Fair" in India, "Harvest Time" by moonlight in Iowa, and the amazing "Coral Spawning" in the Caribbean. Cairns's vibrant watercolors and warm folk-art style successfully capture the excitement of the around-the-world occurrences. Each poem is graced by her artwork on a bold, brightly colored spread. An introductory page contains lunar facts and figures, and endpapers depict a world map so that youngsters can follow the journey. The combination of descriptive poetry and eye-catching illustrations will invite children to wonder and imagine while the multicultural themes and science facts will excite and satisfy. This title will work quite well as a read-aloud for younger children, and independent readers will find much to think about and appreciate.-Carole Phillips, Greenacres Elementary School, Scarsdale, NY (c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
Singer's sparkling verses celebrate the majesty of the moon as experienced in settings around the world, each distinctly conveyed in Cairns's perceptive watercolors. A "Broadway Moon" peers between skyscrapers as a girl, "an audience of one/ watches and silently applauds." In Haifa, Israel, a family gathers for a meal under a sukkah: "Come rejoice in the fair harvest,/ in the harvests long past,/ and the ones yet to come." The lunar celebration even extends beyond Earth, with a scientist in the International Space Station contemplating both Earth's moon and the Martian moon, Phobos. The breadth of perspectives creates a stirring portrait of a familiar but no less marvelous sight. Ages 6-up. (May) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Horn Book Review
Sixteen concise poems provide snapshots of full-moon celebrations around the world, from Canada to the Caribbean, Haifa to Hong Kong, and the International Space Station. Each verse reveals the full moon's powerful pull on the natural world and its inhabitants. The volume concludes with additional information about the places; a map appears on the endpapers. Atmospheric watercolor illustrations reflect the different scenes. Websites. Bib. (c) Copyright 2011. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
A celebration of the full moon via various cultures, countries and festivals.Singer deftly invites readers to consider and appreciate Earth's silvery satellite through poems written in a variety of styles that offer a glimpse of how the full moon is enjoyed and welcomed throughout the world. Several of the offerings reflect fascinating natural phenomena that occur or are influenced during periods of the full moon, and short endnotes about the poems provide helpful, contextual information. Cairns' cheery, childlike, energetic watercolors, feeling the double-page spreads, make the diverse cultures and locales come alive. Readers will be enchanted by the idea that the lovely orb that shines above all the world's peoples has engendered so much wonder and so many rich traditions. In addition to facts about the natural world, readers will learn some interesting trivia: Who knew that when one bends over and looks through the legs the moon looks smaller? Double-page world maps on the endpapers that pinpoint the locales in which the poems are set and a foreword with illustrations of the moon's phases in both hemispheres add to the interest and helpfulness of this volume,enhancing its usefulness as a literary work anda supplement to classroom studies about the moon.Gentle and lovely, just like its inspiration. (Picture book/poetry. 7-10)]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
In this picture-book collection, veteran children's poet Singer offers a moving, informativ. lunar journe. around the globe, starting with New York City'. Broadway Moon. whic. waits behind skyscrapers / a brilliant actor in the wings. On each spread, Singer creates an evocative verse vignette that suggests a whole story with only a few lines. In the Sahara, for example, a Moroccan boy gazes at the full moon from his tent and dreams of exploring it himself. Astronauts less familiar with heat and dust / have walked there. / Why not one day / him. In many selections, Singer neatly folds scientific information into the lyrical lines, as in a scene of ghostly divers moving silently over a reef as the coral prepare to spawn under the full moon. The human figures in Cairns' watercolor images occasionally have a stiff, awkward quality, but the joyful colors and compositions echo the words' celebratory tone. More lunar information opens and closes this creative choice for cross-curricular sharing that taps into the moon's mysterious, awe-inspiring allure.--Engberg, Gillia. Copyright 2010 Booklist