by Peter Loewer; illus. by Jean Loewer
32 pages; ages 6-10
Peachtree, 2019
theme: flower, nature, night
When the sun has set in the West…
The Moonflower is a lyrical and accurate account of nature at night. Beginning with sunset, we meet the crickets, moths, bats, and owls that populate the night. Eventually the moonflower opens and we get an up-close look at pollination.
I grabbed a copy of the original from the library to see how the new version compares. The title page has been updated, and the pages have a crisper look to them. Sidebar material is easier to read. And new information is included. There is more information about bumble bee nests and how bees see the world around them. The original book tells how to translate cricket chirps into temperature; this new printing includes calculations for degrees Celsius. Bats get more press in this updated version, as do moths. Overall, the sidebars and back matter have more connections to math and science.
What I like about this book: I have always liked it for its language. Bats don’t just fly, they swoop and glide. The moonflowers open “like a movie in slow motion” and hawkmoth wings beat so fast they are blurred with speed.
The back matter is still there. As before, there are directions for planting and growing your own moonflower. The glossary has grown, over the years, to reflect the additional information in sidebars.
Beyond the book:
Take a moon hike. It's a bit early for moonflowers to bloom, but not too early to check out the full moon! Tonight is the "full pink moon". Is it really pink? Does it cast moon shadows? What birds, insects, and other nocturnal wildlife do you hear as you walk?
Calculate the temperature from cricket chirps. Here are directions to do that in degrees F and C. Plus additional investigations, including chirp counts for different kinds of crickets and even katydids. If it's too cold for crickets where you are, jot this on your Things to Do list for later in the summer.
Learn more about moonflowers here, and make some paper moonflowers for an inside "garden".
Do you have any night pollinators living around your area? Check out this post, and this one about how light pollution presents a challenge to the night flyers.
Today we're joining other book bloggers over at STEM Friday, where you can discover other cool STEM books. And we're joining Perfect Picture Book Friday, an event where bloggers share great picture books at Susanna Leonard Hill's website . Review copy provided by publisher.
What a great cover and language. Thanks for highlighting this.
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