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Astronomy Education for Schools, Clubs, and the Public
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After 33 years in the classroom, Dayle retired to pursue her love of art and to continue with her love of planetarium education. These interests developed into a desire to write and illustrate children's books.
REVIEWS
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SKYLORE FROM PLANET EARTH: STORIES FROM AROUND THE WORLD...ORION
Reviewed by Georgia Neff, Peoria, Illinois, USA in the September, 2005 issue of the PLANETARIAN, Journal of the International Planetarium Society. Vol 34, No. 3, page 38.
This book charmingly illustrated by the author, retells the tale of Orion as seen by fifteen different cultures. For every planetarian who has shared the story of Orion and Diana more times than can be counted, here are possibly unfamiliar legends from around the world.
Every inhabited continent is represented, plus Polynesia. The stars of Orion variously represent individual animals or people, or whole battle scenes. Each simply-told story includes a full-page illustration suggesting the art style of the people who told that version of the tale. The artwork incorporates the star pattern as seen from the tale's area of origin.
A parent-teacher guide with background information, a vocabulary list, activities and a very useful chart of National Education Standards correlation is available to accompany the book. The guide contains reproducible sheets for use with students or cmp groups. Skylore's extensive bibliography llists a variety of books and articles for further reading.
This book would be a great addition to your collection of storytelling tools. Teachers would enjoy it for the variety of intedisciplinary activities. Planetarians will find it a source of new stories to tell. Camp and scout leaders will find it a great resource for multi-cultural events. And any reader will enjoy the variety of tales. Order it on-line at www.authorhouse.com.
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SKYLORE FROM PLANET EARTH: STORIES FROM AROUND THE WORLD...PLEIADES
Reviewed by Chuck Bueter, Granger, Indiana, USA in the September, 2006 issue of the PLANETARIAN, Journal of the International Planetarium Society, Vol. 35, No. 3, page 43.
Star stories are prioritized thoughts kept in the collective vault of our heritage. The Skylore from Planet Earth series engages readers by spotlighting a single celestial feature and viewing it through the filters of various cultures.
Among the impacts of the Pleiades star cluster are the visual spectacle, the emotional affiliation, and the storytelling that bridges the two. In the book PLEIADES, 15 interpretations from around the globe attest to the appeal of this eye-catching shimmer in the constellation of Taurus.
Veteran planetarian Dayle Brown, a gifted artist, paints a fuller understanding of this cluster's influence. Each of the 15 Pleiades stories is a concise and visually appealing morsel, tempting the reader to eagerly move on to the next flavor before finishing savoring the current one. I raced headlong from Croatia to Africa to Siberia to Guatemala and beyond, sampling each region's lore through the common denominator of a star cluster.
Each Pleiades legend is told simply on one page, with illustrations that portray key players and terms around the perimeter of the text. Brown's renderings of the characters are imbedded in a stylistic star field on the facing page. A small Earth globe in the page corner reminds readers where the people who shared this story reside. This is an excellent "interdisciplinary" book-history, geography, literature, and art blend together beautifully.
I was eager to read this short book because I wanted to know how other sky observers treated the Pleiades conundrum; that is, are there six or are there seven discernible stars in this cluster, and how do othes reconcile the discrepancy? But I had to wait for my answer.
In a true display of the book's appeal, my 10-year old daughter, a fan of the Orion book of the same series, snatched PLEIADES from me and immediately read it cover to cover. She was quite satisfied with its content. "I enjoy learning new stories from around the world," she noted, "so this book is right up my alley." Before relinquishing it to me, she assured me PLEIADES was a great book for readers of all ages.
During my turn to read it, I discovered that some storytellers account for the seventh star, while others omit it. The conundrum remains. Nonetheless, I was continually impressed by the gifted weaving of local curcumstances into the respective stories.
At the end, Brown invites readers to make up their own tales. Surely more Pleiades stories are out there somewhere, awaiting their time in history. Perhaps some day one of those stories, modern to us, might eventally take hold in the minds of a larger population.
In the meantime, while I re-read PLEIADES (savoring it this time, rather than gulping it whole), both my daughter and I eagerly await Brown's next installment of SKYLORE FROM PLANET EARTH.
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The SKYLORE series is also available from the Learning Technologies catalog.
Starlab
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