Blue Moon Special: ‘In Every Moon There is a Face’

For the past 18 years, I have given a special ornament to each of my children on Christmas Eve. Each trinket signifies something about their lives in the previous 12 months.

After almost two decades, we have a litany of stories and mementos hanging from metal hooks among the pine needles – ballet slippers, handprints, ponies, pianos and tokens from trips. It’s like a 3-D version of scrapbooking.

The first in this collection was a handcrafted moon with a little baby girl nestled in the lower curve of the star-bedecked crescent. The infant is asleep with her tummy facing down, her knees tucked in and her bottom poking up – my first-born’s position of choice when she snoozed.

Between that ornament and the lunar beauty on recent winter nights, I’ve had the moon on my mind. Last evening its light was so bright, it penetrated the curtains in my bedroom, leaving moon shadows on the floor.

On New Year’s Eve we will experience the second full moon this month – the celestial event known as a “blue moon.” The last time this occurred on a New Year’s Eve was 19 years ago in 1990 – two months before the birth of my first baby. The next one will ring in the new year in 2028.

This afternoon I heard my second daughter humming “Fly me to the moon. Let me sing among the stars.” So, it shouldn’t really have surprised me when the children’s book “In Every Moon There is a Face” caught my attention as I surfed Big Universe’s website for some of the latest additions on its virtual bookshelves.

While the book has been on the site for some time (480 others have read it) I somehow missed it. Its poetic verses were penned by renaissance man Charles Mathes, and his talented wife, Arlene Graston, gave the text wings with her fanciful paintings. Published by Illumination Arts, the book received the Gold Medal for Best Children’s Picture Book of the Year by Foreword Magazine.

I made the mistake of reading this book for the first time in the same way I would have recited the words to “If You Give a Mouse a Cookie” for the umpteenth time. When I finished, however, I knew I had missed the mark. I hit the Read Again tab and gave this book another shot.

The second time I read Mathes’ poem I set off at a gentler pace, using a softer voice appropriate for a lullaby or soothing bedtime story. I took my time as the text circled in a dream-like fashion and lingered to absorb the illustrations, which expanded the story with their intricate detail.

This time I savored the collaboration of text and art like a fine wine – instead of treating it like a Big Gulp from the corner 7-Eleven. This time I arrived at a different impression entirely! I invite you to give it a read, too.

Other Lunar Favs on My Mind:

• Van Morrison’s song “Moondance.”
• “Goodnight Moon” by Margaret Wise Brown.
• The 1987 Oscar-winning movie “Moonstruck.”
• Cat Steven’s song “MoonShadow.”
• Keith’s Moon Page trivia.
• Mobile, Alabama’s new year’s celebration. The city raises a 12-foot, lighted mechanical moonpie replica above the city at midnight.  Think Times Square with a hint of marshmallow, graham cracker and chocolate.

 Happy New Year!  May you enjoy many hours of good reading in 2010 and a sprinkling of moon dust, too.

2 Comments

• Daniel Manley says:

  January 17, 2010 at 10:11 pm

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• ballet classes says:

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