How the Moon Regained Her Shape (Arbordale Collection) - Softcover

Janet Ruth Heller

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1607187043 ISBN 13: 9781607187042

Publisher: Arbordale, 2012

Synopsis

How the Moon Regained Her Shape is a fiction picture book for children.  Janet Ruth Heller has written a legend influenced by Native American folktales that explains why the moon changes shape and helps children deal with bullies. The sun insults the moon, and the moon feels so badly hurt that she shrinks and leaves the sky. The moon turns to her comet friend 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, and she returns to her orbit. An educational appendix gives advice about bullying, scientific information about the moon, and ideas for related activities for children. 

This book has won four national awards for its lyrical writing and its wonderful artwork. Illustrator Ben Hodson won a Benjamin Franklin Award for this book's artwork in 2007. How the Moon Regained Her Shape also won a Book Sense Pick (2006), a Children's Choices award (2007), and a Gold Medal in the Moonbeam Children's Book Awards (2007).  The book was also a finalist for the Oregon Reading Association's 2009 Patricia Gallagher Picture Book Award.

Children will learn from this book 1) that they need to tell friends and adults when bullying occurs, 2) that a bully's insults are seldom true, 3) that children will recover from abuse, and 4) that we can be friends with people who are different from us. Bullying thrives in secrecy, and most kids feel intimidated by abuse. Adults will learn that many children need the help and advice of friends and adults to stop bullying and to recover from the loss of trust and self-esteem that such harassment causes.

About this title

From the Publisher:

"How the Moon Regained Her Shape" is a 2006 Book Sense Summer Reads Pick and has been selected for the Society of Illustrators' 2006 The Original Art children's illustration exhibition. In addition, "Moon" is part of the Accelerated Reader program used in over 57,000 schools.

From the Author:

I was frequently bullied in elementary school. I was shy and did not know what to do about verbal insults, so I suffered for many years. I wrote my fiction picture book How the Moon Regained Her Shape to help other children to cope with bullying. Also, I was doing research about the Native American writer Judith Minty, and I was reading many Native American legends to understand the culture. I wanted to write my own legend about bullying and about the moon's phases, using the style of a Native American folktale.

Writing and publishing this book has been a healing experience for me. I have enjoyed speaking about bullying and doing creative writing workshops for schools, bookstores, libraries, and conferences.  Many parents and teachers have told me that How the Moon Regained Her Shape has helped children to understand bullying and to have the courage to report harassment to adults and friends. 

About this edition

• Publisher: Arbordale
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 1607187043
• ISBN 13: 9781607187042
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 32
• Illustrator: Ben Hodson