People who live far enough north or far enough south are often treated to a giant "fireworks" display on clear nights. Great sheets of light seem to hang in the sky, rippling and wavering like...
Why do stars twinkle?
The sun and its family of planets, asteroids, meteoroids, and comets are like tiny specks of dust floating in a gigantic ocean. The endless ocean of space also contains countless billions of other...
Why the moon “changes”shape
Oh! look at the moon, She is shining up there; Oh! mother, she looks Like a lamp in the air. Last week she was smaller And shaped like a bow; But now she's grown bigger, And round as an 0. ...
Why the moon shines
Why does the moon shine? It isn't a ball of hot, glowing gas, like the sun. It's a ball of cold, hard rock. How can rock give off light? The answer to that may surprise you. The moon is like a giant...
The four seasons
Summer. Trees burst with thick loads of leaves. Flowers nod in soft, warm breezes. Insects buzz. A blue sky holds a bright, hot sun. Winter. Bare trees stand like bony skeletons against a cold, gray...
Moving into daytime
Imagine that you have awakened very, very early. You look out of a window. The sky is still black, and the whole world seems dark and silent. But as you watch for a long time, the sky slowly turns...
The source of life
Without the sun, there could be no life on earth. Energy pours up out of the raging hot atomic furnace that is the center of the sun. It moves up to the sun's seething, boiling surface and rushes...
The black emptiness
Space is---emptiness. It is black because emptiness has no light of its own. It is neither cold nor hot because emptiness has no temperature. And, of course, there is no air or water in space. But...
The BremenTown Musicians
adapted from Grimm's Fairy Tales by Jakob and Wilhelm Grimm Jakob and Wilhelm Grimm were born in Germany just about two hundred years ago. Their collection of fairy tales, or "Household Tales" as...
Moon-in-Water
by Ivy 0. Eastwick Three Wise Men of Gotham thought the Moon was cheese and tried to fish it out of the river---if you please! but all the little tadpoles trilled a little tune: "You'll never, never...
