WHY WE HAVE DAY AND NIGHT

by Peter Neumeyer ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 1, 1970

What a diagram doesn't demonstrate. . . or a demonstration orange either, until a bug follows its natural inclination to dig in. Cryptic? but then so is the book, a clever put-down of mechanistic explanations and plug for the free-ranging imagination. Children in the dark speculate--""Could a squirrel have chewed a wire?"" (see him in the light corner of the dark page); ""Did the ink spill?""; ""Did our eyes burst?"" (wow); ""Are we still asleep?. . . in a cyclone? Did the curtain drop? Is the world finished?. . . Aren't we born yet?""--until the boy who knows recapitulates Father's demonstration with a flashlight and an orange and a hypothetical bug revolving from light to dark on the orange. ""But why is it dark all over now?"" Because ""the more (the bug) would spin, the hungrier he got. And finally he got SO hungry that he ate right through the outside. . . and he crawled down deep inside and it was all, all, all. . . "" in darkness like the meticulous meaningless diagram that follows. Which, saying nothing to preschoolers and misleading the child who'd try to decode the letters, will leave almost everyone under eight or nine in the dark. But choice for the older child (less apt to be shaken by those bursting eyes too) if you can channel it.

Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1970

ISBN: 0764958860

Page Count: -

Publisher: Young Scott

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1970

Categories: CHILDREN'S