A Full Moon is Rising

Full Bibliographic Data:

Author: Marilyn Singer

Illustrator: Julia Cairns

Publisher: Lee & Low Books, Inc.

Place of Publication: New York, NY

Date of Publication: 2011

ISBN: 978-1-60060-364-8

Summary: The moon is one of the magical pieces of our universe that is shared by all. From the New Moon through the Waxing Moons to the “Full Moon Rising”, from New York City to Hong Kong and deep down into the Caribbean Sea, Marilyn Singer and Julia Cairns take their readers across the world on a lunar journey. Each page of this intricately illustrated collection represents a different place, a new perspective, a unique event, all focused on the same bulging beauty – the Full Moon. Through carefully researched information, crafted into poetry, the reader learns about the varying emotions our moon is able to evoke.

Review: Singer and Cairns have skillfully woven rhythm and color with simple descriptions, in a manner which transports the reader to delicious places such as, in the poem titled Sukkot, when we found “vanilla white moonlight frosting us through the fragrant roof” of a small sukkah in Israel at harvest time. In Staircase to the Moon, Cairns provides a mystical portrait of illuminated ripples in a sleeping ocean for children to ascend to the radiant ball of light above; this evolution of imagery set forth by Singer is a gift which Cairns contributes to the collection. A combination of free verse and internal rhyming ensures that Singer has not sacrificed any of the sacred content she has painstakingly collected and included in these simple, yet thorough, culturally infused poems of the moon. High Tide, Temple of Artemis, and Lunar Eclipse make up the rhyming portion of this collection while Moon Watching, a poem about the Yucatán Coast of Mexico, is presented Haiku style. Wolf Moon is a sort of Canadian ballad, and other poems found in A Full Moon Rising can likely be labeled in various ways but I would call them free verse poems created especially vivid for the young imaginations they are sure to reach.

Awards: Though still too new to know if this book will receive any awards, A Full Moon is Rising has received positive reviews from multiple recognized sources such as Booklist, Kirkus and School Library Journal, to name only a few. A Full Moon is Rising is “gentle and lovely, just like its inspiration” (Kirkus, 04/2011).

“Singer neatly folds scientific information into the lyrical lines [while] the joyful colors and compositions echo the words’ celebratory tone” (Booklist, 05/2011).

Related Materials:

The official Site of Marilyn Singer: http://marilynsinger.net/

Marilyn’s tips on writing: http://marilynsinger.net/category/onwriting/writingtips/

Illustrator Julia Cairns’ website: http://juliacairns.net/

More on the moon: http://moonphases.info/