Day and Night

By: Robin Nelson
Publisher: Lerner Classroom
Publication Date: August 2010
ISBN: 978-0761356790
Reviewed by: Deb Fowler
Review Date: September 2010

After the day is finished, night time comes. This is a cycle that happens as “the Earth spins in space. When you get up in the morning, wherever you are living is “turning to face the sun.” In the early morning you can just see the sun’s light starting to peek out at dawn. When the sun starts to get higher in the sky this is called sunrise. When it is day, everything is bright and you can “see the sun and the clouds in the sky.” If you looked at the Earth from outer space you can see that only a part of it is lit up as it spins. When evening comes, “your part of Earth is turning away from the sun” and night is coming again.

When the sun starts to move “lower in the sky,” this is called sunset. At dusk there is still a bit of light, but you cannot see the sun. When it gets dark and you cannot see any sunlight at all it is night. When you look up in the sky you “can see the moon and the stars.” The Earth will keep turning and this cycle will continue. In the back of this book you will be able to take a look at a diagram that shows this cycle and will learn more about this cycle. For example, you will learn that “it takes Earth 24 hours to spin around once.”

This is an excellent book to introduce the natural cycle of the Earth’s rotation to the young student. As beginning nonfiction, the simple sentences with an accompanying photograph are an excellent way for the emergent reader to become interested in Earth science. Unfamiliar words such as “dusk” and “cycle” are highlighted in bold and explained in the glossary. The photographs were well chosen and make it easy to differentiate between the concept of dusk versus night. This is one in a series called, Discovering Nature’s Cycles. One other in the series entitled The Night Sky is a perfect compliment to this book.

Quill says: If you are interested in introducing very basic Earth science in your classroom, this is an excellent series to consider!