Living Books about the Sun and the Moon

This past year, we did a deep dive into studying Space as our science curriculum. We read so many books on so many subtopics, it was a lot to fit them into one big post, so I’m going to split them up into a few different posts. In my last update, I shared my all-time favorite space-reads from this year. This week, I am sharing some living book recommendations specifically about the sun and the moon.

I’m going to be a bit vulnerable here and confess that the moon’s phases have always confused me. Over the years, I’ve heard it explained many different ways, I’ve done experiments with a lamp and an orange, I’ve read it in different books. Sometimes it takes many different angles and explanations to make sense of a concept – and that’s why I’m glad we read about the sun, the seasons, and the moon from different books. I finally feel like I understand the moon, at 39 years old.

Do you need to read all of these? No. But if your child (or you) aren’t grasping the concept, consider reading about it again by a different author and tying in how the author is explaining it to observations and hands-on demonstrations.

After all our learning this year, my son explained the moon’s orbit to me and what happens when we look up at the sky and there is no moon. He demonstrated with our globe and a pencil so I could see that the far side of the moon doesn’t face the earth. And finally, I understood what he so naturally grasped.

The Sun Our Nearest Star by Franklyn M. Branley

The Sun and the Moon by Carolyn Cinami DeCristofano

Sun Up, Sun Down by Gail Gibbons

What Makes Day and Night by Franklyn M. Branley

The Reason for Seasons by Gail Gibbons

Sunshine Makes the Seasons by Franklyn M. Branley

What the Moon is Like by Franklyn M. Branley

The Moon Book by Gail Gibbons

The Moon Seems to Change by Franklyn M. Branley

I hope you find these books about the sun and the moon helpful on your homeschool journey studying outer space, or if you have a little space enthusiast at home.

Warmly,

-Heather

Enjoyed this post? Check out some of my other recent posts

• Living Books about the Sun and the Moon
• A Year of Stellar Science – Homeschool Study of Space
• Is 4th grade too early for Shakespeare? One family’s experience
• Encouraging Reading in Boys: Favorite Books for Young Readers
• Helping an Addict

Don’t want to miss a thing? Please join my mailing list. You will get an email to your inbox when I publish something new!

ps: This post contains Amazon affiliate links from which I earn a small commission. Thank you for supporting my blog! It means a lot to me. I am a real person, and I really am reading these books with my children. There is no AI-here.