Non-Fiction Poetry Beauty

              I continue to be grateful to Alyson Beecher's Non-Fiction Picture Book Challenge at Kidlit Frenzy.  There are still books from the past I want to read and share,  but it's also time to read new ones coming too. 
             
It's coming Friday, the #nf10for10. You can find all about it here at Cathy Mere's blog, Reflect & Refine, hosted by Cathy & Mandy Robek.

               I received an advance copy of Laura Purdie Salas' new poetry book coming out March 1st. It's If You Were The Moon,  illustrated by Jaime Kim. I adore it, not least because it's about one of my favorite topics, the moon! I've done moon journaling with students before, observed it, wrote about it, created art and wrote poetry inspired by it. Oh, how I wish I'd had this book to enhance our learning!

Laura's moon observations poetically call upon factual observations in moon-colored, orange lettering that swirl across the pages and the facts from those observations are given in brief paragraphs enclosed by {curly brackets}. 


If you were the moon, you would "spin like a twilight ballerina."  Or, you would "hide in the shadows." It's difficult to choose a favorite, but among all the pages, I smiled a lot when I turned the page to "Catch and throw. Catch and throw." This creative line explains how the moon takes light from the sun and reflects it back to earth. Facts are interpreted in clever ways, with an ending that will satisfy everyone no matter how old. Even the front and back cover is "moon-filled".  

It may be a challenge illustrating these moon "facts". After all, the moon mostly is something we watch when it is dark. Jaime Kim's illustrations fill the dark pages with gorgeous night skies and nighttime scenes: stars and comets, an owl and tree silhouettes and the earth. Yet on every page, that gorgeous moon is the true star. Aside from the 'science' of the moon, other cultural aspects are also included, like the art inspired by it through history. A glossary and a section on further reading are added at the back.

All non-fiction books are "teaching" books in some way, but when non-fiction facts are shown in poetry and gorgeous drawings, it widens ideas of how to look at our world. Laura has written a lovely book about the moon, useful for a wide range of ages. I certainly would have used this with my middle schoolers while teaching the importance of knowing factual information when writing in a variety of genres.

I will add that if you are unfamiliar with Laura's books, you should explore them. She's written for a variety of topics, but these pictures above are ones similar in tone, and through poetry explore three other topics: rocks, water, and leaves.