Jack and Jill and the Man in the Moon is a rhyming picture book based on an ancient Scandinavian legend that explained the waxing and waning moon and that served as the basis of the Jack and Jill nursery rhyme. When the people of ancient Sweden looked at the patterns of light and dark on the lunar surface, they saw not a "man in the moon" but two children, Hjuki and Bil, translated over time as Jack and Jill. Jack and Jill leave their farmhouse every night in a glen and climb a hill to fetch a pail of water from a well, and when the moon sees the children, he sweeps them into the sky to become his companions. When Jack and Jill frolic on the moon, it becomes a full, round ball, and Scandinavian sky watchers recognized the children's faces peering down at them from the lunar surface. While tumbling with Mister Moon in his silver sky palace, the Moon fills the children's pail with magic moon dew, and the moon wanes; drained of moisture. When the children tumble back to earth, they bring with them a bit of moon magic, shimmering like silver in their pail. They water the fields and renew the earth. Then they watch Mister Moon grow full, until they visit him again the next month.
This book lends itself to educational and classroom use. As a teacher's resource, the story can be used to teach the lunar phases. It can be used to teach the colors of the rainbow, which, in this book, the children climb to reach the moon's silver sky palace. It can also be used to compare and contrast what people from different cultures recognized when they looked at the patterns of light and dark on the moon's surface. Vivid illustrations by Claudie C. Bergeron show the children's shadows on the Moon as they turn and tumble, and how the children's encounter with Mister Moon carries the moon through the phases.
