Review by Booklist Review
Ages 5-8. To the Native Americans who used the full moon to help them keep track of time, there was no such thing as January. Instead there was the wolf moon, because wolves, they believed, became restless in January. Every month had a special moon name, chosen to reflect a characteristic specific to that month. Pollock uses these traditional moon names, and the beliefs and customs that inspired them, as the basis for her original poetry. The text comprises the name of the month, in bold type, and the moon name immediately beneath it; Pollock's poem; and a short sentence or two explaining the moon name. All of this is set against a gorgeous woodcut print, in Caldecott Medal winner Azarian's distinctive style, produced on a nineteenth-century hand press and hand colored. The sturdy pictures provide just the right look for the nature-themed poems. The final spread asks and answers 20 questions about the moon, three of which consider its connection to Native American culture. --Lauren Peterson
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Azarian's (Snowflake Bentley) hand-painted woodcut prints provide evocative, haunting nature scenes for Pollock's (The Turkey Girl) eloquent poems in honor of each month's full moon. Each new spread reveals a spectacular nighttime vista; readers may well turn the pages as they would a calendar, pausing over the beauty of one scene, anticipating the next. Snow in February yields to sap buckets in March; raccoons feast on corn under the August moon while squirrels gather acorns on September nights. The poems vary in rhythm and mood, and are often arresting in their simplicity: "Lilies of the valley/ ring each silent bell/ when May's bright moon/ lightens up the dell"; in July, "Young bucks/ in the hayfield,/ antlers held aloft./ Moonbeams slanting down,/ show them velvet soft." Traditional Native American names for the moon serve as the poems' titles (January is the "The Wolf Moon") and a simple explanation follows: "Native Americans believed that wolves became restless in January." A concluding question-and-answer page provides additional information about the moon. This lovely volume will likely charm readers and inspire them to linger a bit longer under the night-time sky. Ages 4-8. (Sept.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review
K-Gr 4-This delicate collection of poems offers a beautifully illustrated look at a year's worth of full moons. The Native American name for each moon is given, along with brief facts about it. An interesting question-and-answer section offers a variety of information about the moon itself, common misconceptions, and the truth about blue moons. Short and simple selections convey a variety of moods. For example, June is home to the strawberry moon, when "We feast all night/in moon's spotlight/forgetting all our foes,/tramping on the berries/that squish between our toes." The accompanying picture features three gleeful bears frolicking in the warm moon glow of a strawberry patch. Azarian's woodcuts are bathed in soothing blues, greens, and buttery yellows that entice readers to view this book outside under the moon's shadowy embrace.-Lisa Gangemi Krapp, Middle Country Public Library, Centereach, NY (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Horn Book Review
A handsome collection of brief, imagistic poems circles through a calendarÆs worth of full moons. Native American names for the moons serve as each poemÆs title; a short note following each verse explains the inspiration for the lunar names--e.g., July is called the Buck Moon because bucks begin to sprout antlers during that month. Painted woodcut prints provide beautiful, naturalistic backdrops for the poetry. Questions and answers about the moon are included. From HORN BOOK Spring 2002, (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
The rhymed text doesn't match the power of Caldecott-winner Azarian's hand-colored woodcuts in this journey through the seasons. Each of Pollock's verses describes the scene: January is Wolf Moon, April is Frog Moon, December is Long Night Moon, and so on. Each verse is followed by a short sentence expanding on the poem's description, and that sometimes is absurdly self-evident: for May, the Flower Moon, "Many flowers bloom in May." The verses tend to thud and clunk along, and the author, a Wyandotte Indian descendant, refers consistently to Native Americans in her text as if they were a homogenous group. Question-and-answer pages at the end answer such questions as, "What is a blue moon?" Azarian's images are beautifully rendered, with an underlying strength to the patterns of flower, cornstalk, ripple, and leaf. A more engaging verbal treatment of this theme is Michael McCurdy's An Algonquian Year (2000); one would hate to choose between McCurdy's illustrations and Azarian's. (Picture book. 5-8)
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
