How the Moon Regained Her Shape — Janet Ruth Heller

This fascinating story influenced by Native American folktales explains why the moon changes shape and helps children deal with bullies.  After the sun insults and bullies her, the moon feels so badly hurt that she shrinks and leaves the sky.  The moon turns to a comet and her many friends on earth to comfort her.  Her friends include rabbits and Native Americans. Then she regains her full shape, happiness, and self-esteem.  The moon also returns to her orbit.  An educational appendix called “For Creative Minds” gives advice about bullying, scientific information about the moon, and ideas for related crafts, recipes, and games for children.  <br>

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This fictional story includes a 6-page For Creative Minds section in the back of the book and a 30-page cross-curricular Teaching Activity Guide online. How The Moon Regained Her Shape is vetted by experts and designed to encourage parental engagement. Its extensive back matter helps teachers with time-saving lesson ideas, provides extensions for science, math, and social studies units, and uses inquiry-based learning to help build critical thinking skills in young readers. The Spanish translation supports ELL and dual-language programs. The interactive ebook reads aloud in both English and Spanish with word highlighting and audio speed control to promote oral language skills, fluency, pronunciation, text engagement, and reading comprehension.<br>

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IBPA Benjamin Franklin Award (gold)<br>

IRA Children's Choices Reading List (winner)<br>

Moonbeam Children's Book Award (gold)<br>

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Educator Keywords: astronomy, moon phases, bullying, Native American folklore, earth science, moon phases, months of year