Paper Plate Education
"Serving the Universe on a Paper Plate"

Good(night) Moons Rising

The classic children's book Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown has excellent illustrations by Clement Hurd. Notice the location of the moon in the great green room's window. The clocks--on the mantle and on the nightstand--advance in 10-minute increments as the full moon rises appropriately in the evening.


7:10 p.m.	7:20 p.m.	7:30 p.m.	7:40 p.m.	8:00 p.m.	8:10 p.m.

Two clocks show the passage of time.

Meanwhile, the painting over the fireplace of the cow jumping over the moon accurately portrays a waxing crescent moon setting in the evening sky.

More good moons rising:

	Papa, please get the moon for me. Author/Illustrator: Eric Carle Simon and Schuster	Throughout the story the moon segues through its phases in the proper order. (However, it does error in showing the waxing crescent just after sunset. See More Faux Phases.)
	Happy Birthday, Moon Author/Illustrator: Frank Asch Aladdin Paperbacks	During the night bear "waited and watched while the [full] moon slowly crept up through the branches..."
	The Moon Singer Author: Clyde Robert Bulla Illustrator: Trina Hyman	"The [full] moon rose. By its light they saw the boy..."
Note: These two pages are side by side; read across the top row, then the bottom row.	Mole's Hill Author/Illustrator: Lois Ehlert Harcourt Brace & Company	"Each night Mole kept digging... Many moons passed."

See Bad Moons Rising for examples of inaccurate depictions of moon phases in many children's books. Please send examples both of bad moons and of good moons rising through our Feedback page. Thank you.

Make a Moon Finder to correlate the moon's position with any given phase and time.

Note: The images above are the copyrighted property of the creators, as cited. The images are reproduced here for educational purposes under the "Fair Use" premise of U.S. copyright law.

Contributed by Chuck Bueter.

GLPA Proceedings, 1997, p. 161.

The contents of this site may be reproduced for non-profit educational purposes only. Please cite the contributing author in credits.
All other uses require the express written permission of the respective contributors.