The Moon and I

The Moon and I 

The Moon and I was written and illustrated by Besty Byars. This is a memoir and Betsy starts in out like any of her other novels, a potential problem which she is going to solve. This is written for ages of children between the 3rd and 6th grade. The first problem that Betsy comes across is a snake. She is sitting on her porch and a snake is crawling through the rafters. She starts the beginning with a problem ad throughout the book you get to learn about her life and how she loves to write.

When Betsy began writing this narrative she started telling us about her subsequent adventures with the snake, whom she named Moon, while the subplot so to speak contains flashbacks about her life. For example, in the first few chapters Byars relates the snake to when she was growing up and how she wanted to work at a zoo. While growing up her and her best friends would play 'zoo' and they would pretend to take care of baby animals who were abandoned. It also meant they were always on the alert for new acquisitions. she explains that one day the two girls came across some eggs and brought them home. When her egg hatched into a snake, Byars wanted to keep the snake but her mom made her give it away. And so now as an adult, she kind of wants to keep that overhanging blacksnake she saw on her porch as a pet.

Byars tells us that she loves to type title pages. And so even before she has figured out how her memoir will transpire, when all she has the characters and the setting, she types a title page: The Moon and I. For Byars, there is no single moment in her life that brings her more satisfaction than a title page. Personally, I think its harder to right the title first, for me I have to write the story before i write the title. But even with having the title, she still doesn’t know how to develop The Moon and I and so she begins to research. While doing doing some research, she reads many charming and not-so charming stories about snakes. She also decides to try and touch Moon ( a snake). As part of her becoming an authority on her topic, which all authors must do. And in the course of getting to know Moon, Byars discovers his dark side. The dark side bites her.

The elements of her story are: plot, characters, setting, and scraps. Byars says that “Plenty of good scraps are important in making a book as in the making of a quilt,”. Now that Moon had bit her, she has her first scrap. For Byars she has a hard tie letting go. Eventualy the snakes that she finds have to go into hibernation and she begins to feel a mix of emotions. At the end she finds a solution to deal with the snakes going away for a away.

Classroom Actives:

For each student have them choose something that is very important to them and have them write a paragraph explaining the importance and relating it back to a specific event in their life. After they are done writing, if they would like to share with the class they can.

If you liked reading this book, check out more written by Byars:

• The Golly Sister Books
• The Ant Books
• The Joy Boys
• The Little Horse Books

Byars, Betsy. The Moon and I. Beech Tree Bks, 1997.