thrifted moons

Given my penchant for 1940s children's books lately, it should have been no surprise that one of my first finds at our local used bookstore last evening was Many Moons by James Thurber. A beautifully illustrated classic, and Caldecott winner, I'm not sure why we didn't already have Many Moons as part of our children's library.

This story of a rather spoiled little princess demanding the moon, and regardless of the impossibility of her request, she cannot be dissuaded from her demands. The text is witty and the dialogue smart, just my prerequisites for a perfect addition to our collection.

The ending is sweet and portrays exactly how you'd deal with a child demanding the impossible while lending great personality to the moon itself.

Our other thrifted lunar find was a book of simple poems about the full moon of each month.When The Moon Is Full is simply illustrated with hand-painted woodcut prints by Mary Azarian, also known as the Caldecott winning illustrator of Snowflake Bentley, another favorite of ours.

The only text is a simple poem for each month about the month's moon with a bit of simple information about the traditional reason for each moon's name.

The end of the book also contains some common questions and answers about the moon such as the cause of a blue moon.

The July moon, or Buck Moon, is about 3 weeks away. Watch for it!