Tomorrow night is the Full
Harvest Moon, so it seems like the perfect time to launch a celebration of our
closest companion in space. Afterall, everyone loves the Moon, and we literally
couldn’t live without it. The Moon’s gravitational pull moderates the seasons,
so Earth isn’t too freezing cold or too scorching hot. It’s just right for
life, including us.
What exactly is a Moon Book
Parade? Through the phases of this lunar cycle, which ends with the Full
Falling Leaves Moon (Ojibway,
Lakota/Sioux, Chippewa, Arapaho, Cree) on October 28, I’ll highlight a picture
book that features the Moon every Thursday. One of the book’s creators will
stop by to answer questions about their book and their creative process. Here’s
the list of books:
Full
Moon Pups
by Liz Garton Scanlon and Chuck Groenink
Night
Owl Night by
Susan Edwards Richmond and Maribel Lechuga
A
Few Beautiful Minutes: Exploring a Solar Eclipse by Kate Allen Fox and Khoa Le
Museum
on the Moon: The Curious Objects on the Lunar Surface by Irene Latham and Myriam Wares
Thank
You, Moon: Celebrating Nature’s Night Light by Melissa Stewart and Jessica Lanan.
All
the creators have generously agreed to donate two copies of their book for a double
five-book giveaway. Leave a comment on any of the posts and share it on
Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram with the hashtag #ThankYouMoon to be eligible. We’ll
announce the winner at 6:26 p.m. ET on October 28, when viewers on the East
Coast will have a chance to enjoy a partial lunar eclipse.
Today, we’re starting the parade with Full
Moon Pups
written by Liz Garton Scanlon and illustrated by Chuck Groenink. I love this book!
Greetings, Liz. Thanks so much
for sharing Full
Moon Pups with me last spring. It was
definitely the impetus for this Moon Book Parade. Can you tell us what the Moon
means to you?
LGS: Thank YOU, Melissa, for hosting this gathering of
beamy books! I’m honored to kick it off.
I’ve been fascinated by space
since I was a kid—the Milky Way and constellations, the meteor showers, the
moon. I even featured the Space Shuttle program in my first novel, The Great Good Summer, because I have such wide-eyed memories of
being taken along on those adventures, thanks to NASA and the television news.
But I’ve been city-based for years now, so the wonder of the night sky is often
absent to me, thanks to the buzz and hum of urban light pollution. The moon,
though? The moon transcends that. It is faithful and timely and omnipresent—always
there even when it’s ‘new.’ I’m grateful for its bright constancy, there for
every living creature on Earth who looks up.
How did the idea for Full Moon Pups come to you?
LGS: I grew up in the Rockies where wolves were a
constant source of conversation and controversy. While I understand the need to
consider all the various interests, interactions, and perspectives in any
particular ecosystem, it pains me that wolves are so often made out to be
villains. So I knew I wanted to write about wolves—especially the pups who are,
like most babies, absolutely adorable and very easy to root for. And, as we all
know, wolves are lore-linked to the moon! So I used a complete moon cycle as the
structural scaffolding for the book, which follows a litter of pups through
their first month of life.
What was the most challenging part of writing the book?
LGS: Ha! Well, as is often true, the best part of an
idea is also the hardest to execute! In this case, I had to make sure to attend
to the phases of the moon throughout the text and
to ensure that I was accurately linking the pups’ developmental stages to those
phases! (And, to add to the puzzle, I decided to do it in rhyme.)
Full Moon Pups came
out in April. How did you celebrate?
LGS: My book launch celebration took place mostly online,
but I also visited several schools around that time, so I got to share
read-alouds with hundreds of kids who now know all there is to know about pups
and packs and waxing and waning! Plus, we howled together. A lot.
What do you hope readers will take away from the book?
LGS: I hope young readers grow to know the beauty and
resilience of wolves—not the fairy tale antiheros or the ranchers’ curse, but
the wild animals who are a critical keystone species (and predecessors of our
beloved household dogs)! And I hope those same readers learn to look up—to see
and know the moon, to watch it change, to feel its pull. May it feel as
wondrous and as reliable to them as it always has to me.
They deserve that.
Do you have a favorite spread in the book?
LGS: I know I’m biased, but the artwork by Chuck
Groenink is dreamy—accurate and atmospheric and just plain cute. There’s an
early spread of spot illustrations that show the pups nursing and sleeping and
wriggling about—that’s the spread that makes little kids sigh when they see it!
But the last page, where they pups throw their mighty shadows and stand yipping
at the moon, is pretty spectacular too!
Can you share a couple other Moon-themed children’s books that you love?
LGS: Absolutely! I hope everyone has read Antwan Edy’s Nigel and the Moon,
Christopher Denise’s Knight Owl, and Grace Lin’s A Big Mooncake for
Little Star—bedtime treasures all. And if you want to stick with the
nonfiction energy of Full Moon Pups, I highly recommend Maria
Gianferrari’s Coyote Moon and Loree Griffin Burns’ inspiring and
interactive You’re Invited to a Moth Ball: A Nighttime Insect Celebration.
Next Thursday, the Moon Book Parade will feature Susan Edwards Richmond, author of the enchanting picture book Night
Owl Night.
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One Response
This is a special idea. Thanks, Melissa, & Liz, for discussing & sharing your new book about wolves & the moon. It sounds & looks special! Colorado is working to find wolves for reintroduction, but amazingly it's been a challenge. I have read all the favorites there at the end that are listed, Irene's new book & Knight Owl Moon – all terrific! I look forward to reading about them & the others!