#13

The Sun, the Moon, and the Stars
Poems collected, written, and illustrated by Nancy Elizabeth Wallace
Houghton Mifflin Company
2003
36 pages

Poetry

“Under the dark is a star,
Under the star is a tree,
Under the tree is a blanket,
And under the blanket is me.”

          This book caught my eye because of the cut paper illustrations on each page. This is a collection of poems about the sun, the moon, and the stars. My favorite poem is “Day-Time Moon” by Dorothy Aldis. This poem talks about seeing the moon during the day when the sun is out. It says that the moon has no stars in its company during the day time.

            Each poem is illustrated with cut papers of different colors and textures. I like how Wallace uses the cut paper to illustrate her pictures, because the pictures really pop from the page. Each color is so different from the color beside it. She uses a lot of primary colors in her illustrations since this is a book to read with young children. The page spreads differ from double to single to half page spreads. This book has an informal text placement on each page. The poems about the sun have a light blue background, like the sky during the daytime. In contrast, the poems about the moon and stars have a dark blue background representing the night sky.

            I would recommend this book to young children. In the classroom, I would use this book to talk about the sun, moon, and stars. I would use my favorite poem, “Day-Time Moon” to talk about why the moon is still visible during the day. Another activity would be to have students write their own poem about the sun, the moon, or the stars. The teacher would collect the poems and make a classroom book to display the writings in.

This book has not been recognized for any awards or honors.