What The Sun Sees, What The Moon Sees

by Nancy Tafuri, Nancy Tafuri (Illustrator)

Overview

Here is a beautiful and unique picture book in turn-around format about the concept of day and night. Open the book, and the sun rises to reveal blue skies, crowded barnyards, and bustling streets. Turn the book over, and the moon comes up to the hush of night with its bright stars, hooting owls, and sleeping children. Young audiences will delight in the experience of going from morning to night — and back again — in this stunning creation from the Caldecott Honor — winning author-artist of Have You Seen My Duckling?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780688144937
Publisher:	HarperCollins Publishers
Publication date:	09/01/1997
Edition description:	1 ED
Pages:	40
Sales rank:	32,382
Product dimensions:	9.00(w) x 12.00(h) x 0.25(d)
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

Nancy Tafuri's acclaimed picture books for the youngest child include the Caldecott Honor Book Have You Seen My Duckling?; Spots, Feathers, and Curly Tails; I love you, Little One; and In the Snow, written by Sharon Phillips Denslow. She lives with her family in Roxbury, Connecticut.

Editorial Reviews

Tafuri's (The Brass Ring) "reversible" book inventively covers the same ground twice: first by daylight, then at night, after the reader flips the book over halfway through (the "back cover" acts as the "front cover" of What the Moon Sees). Each of the sun's sights"blue skies," "crowded barnyards," "sleeping owls"has a counterpart in the purview of the moon: "bright stars," "quiet barnyards," "hooting owls." The palette also changes from daylight's warm, bright tones to evening's cool blues, and the style from crisply defined illustrations to caliginous watercolor washes. The oversized daytime double-spread images of rabbits and clover or of children at a playground hold no surprises, but Tafuri's use of the day's cycle to structure the book is a pleasing hook. And, as a bedtime story, it provides closure, creating a tranquil nighttime world that seems just right for sleepingfor everyone but owls, that is. Ages 2-up. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

With bright and colorful illustrations, this book starts by telling about things that the sun sees. Each set of pages contains one sentence about an object the sun might see. The middle of the book marks a change by saying, "the sun watches until the moon comes up." Then the child is instructed to turn the book upside -down to continue. The rest of the book tells what the moon sees in much the same manner as the sunny beginning. However, the illustrations are darkened to show our world at night. The repetitive words and clever presentation are sure to intrigue young readers and fidgeting listeners. This book is a wonderful early reading experience.

Children's Literature - Susan Fournier

PreS-KAn excellent concept book, similar in quality to the artist's many pastoral picture books. Here, Tafuri uses a "flip-book" technique to show readers similar settings first from the point of view of the sun, and then from that of the moon (or vice versa). She provides a pleasant introduction to many opposites in scenes that will be familiar to a young audiencebusy/restful city and country scenes, awake/sleeping animals and children. Details from one picture transform themselves in the opposite, e.g., sunflowers, shown in a sun-drenched field, appear in a brightly lit florist's window, viewed from a dark and quiet city street. A spare and repetitious text reinforces the continuity and contrast of daytime and nighttime experiences. A detached perspective and a panoramic distancing of colored-pencil and watercolor illustrations allow viewers to feel as though they are indeed looking down on the cycles of time.Tana Elias, Meadowridge Branch Library, Madison, WI

School Library Journal

A double-ended book showing scenes from farm, woodland, city, and school, first by day and then, by turning the book over and beginning again from the "back," at night. The large format and extremely large type make this an ideal book for group sharing. Children intrigued by the novel layout are likely to match up the corresponding pictures—those who are careful will discover that there's actually one more daytime spread. Tafuri's fans will recognize the gray-and-black speckled hens from Early Morning in the Barn (1983), the marmalade cat from Junglewalk (1988), and even one of the sweet brown dogs from Who's Counting? (1986). From beautiful mixed-media artwork is fashioned an elegantly simple graphic demonstration of the neverending cycle of day and night.

Kirkus Reviews