Why Does the Moon Change Shape? (Ask Isaac Asimov)

Explains why the moon changes from crescent to full moon every twenty-nine and one-half days.

Grade 1-3-- Asimov spreads himself rather thin in these three titles designed to answer commonly asked questions. Shooting Star covers, in a hasty fashion, meteors and meteorites, their makeup, and their origins. In Twinkle , the author ranges more widely, discussing optical illusions, how air currents affect light, and the ways in which astronomers can compensate for the distortion or, with the Hubble Space Telescope, avoid it altogether--or rather, most of it. Asimov delivers a rare oversimplification when he claims that ``without air, starlight travels straight through space without bending.'' A simple description of the moon's phases in the third book is padded fore and aft by a general introductory essay, a demonstration using a ball and a flashlight, a brief discussion of lunar calendars, and perfunctory back matter. All three titles feature colorful photos and paintings with inset large-type texts, very brief bibliographies, and appended address lists. The information here is available elsewhere, but older, less-able readers may prefer these to Branley's Shooting Stars (1989) and The Moon Seems to Change (1987, both Crowell), which are plainly aimed at younger audiences. --John Peters, New York Public Library
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