MANY MOONS

Moon phases are compared to shapes such as “the cat’s long, curved tail” in this French import.

In strong yellow, black, and white, with large board pages and a die-cut cover revealing a waxing crescent moon, each double-page spread features a different phase. The first spread reads: “On this night, matthew thinks the moon could be a bow for his arrow.” (On other pages, names are capitalized.) The waxing crescent is yellow, while the part of the moon not seen from Earth is shiny black on the matte black background. A small white line drawing of Matthew shooting an arrow shows his yellow bow in the same crescent shape, but the illustrations are not always consistent. The full moon includes a black line drawing of humans and animals. The full-circle shapes are found in the round sunglasses worn by various characters, but some wear square glasses. In the waning gibbous spread, “Holly the owl keeps watch with one eye open.” The black line drawing of the owl shows a black crescent shape, curve down, as the “open” eye. The shiny black sliver that represents the part of the moon not seen orients the curve to the right. This inconsistency gets in the way of helping young readers make sense of the phases. The final spread, with text for older readers, offers a more comprehensive sense of how the phases progress.

Visually striking but conceptually flawed