The Birth of the Moon

""Once upon a time, it was dark at night and the animals couldn't see a thing,"" begins this aesthetically pleasing pourquoi tale. Entreated to end the gloom, the sun creates the moon, making it bigger and bigger as the animals clamor for more and more light at night. But the animals soon take their gift for granted; in anger, the sun takes the moon away, restoring it only after the animals apologize--and only then on a conditional basis: ""From now on, the moon will wax and wane to remind you to appreciate my gift to you,"" says the sun. The relatively technical terms of ""waxing"" and ""waning"" call attention to themselves in a parable otherwise crafted with a rough-hewn eloquence. Gracefully austere illustrations, composed largely from torn and cut paper, evoke an array and depth of textures: the cragginess of a mountain peak, the downiness of a duck's feathers, and even the shimmering scales of fish caught in the spotlight of a full moon. As befits a story about cosmic origins, the world Hol details feels newly minted and poignantly fragile. Ages 3-6. (Mar.)