cover image What the Sun Sees, What the Moon Sees

What the Sun Sees, What the Moon Sees

Nancy Tafuri. Greenwillow Books, $17.99 (40pp) ISBN 978-0-688-14493-7

Tafuri's (The Brass Ring) ""reversible"" book inventively covers the same ground twice: first by daylight, then at night, after the reader flips the book over halfway through (the ""back cover"" acts as the ""front cover"" of What the Moon Sees). Each of the sun's sights--""blue skies,"" ""crowded barnyards,"" ""sleeping owls""--has a counterpart in the purview of the moon: ""bright stars,"" ""quiet barnyards,"" ""hooting owls."" The palette also changes from daylight's warm, bright tones to evening's cool blues, and the style from crisply defined illustrations to caliginous watercolor washes. The oversized daytime double-spread images of rabbits and clover or of children at a playground hold no surprises, but Tafuri's use of the day's cycle to structure the book is a pleasing hook. And, as a bedtime story, it provides closure, creating a tranquil nighttime world that seems just right for sleeping--for everyone but owls, that is. Ages 2-up. (Sept.)