From School Library Journal:
PreS-K An excellent concept book, similar in quality to the artist's many pastoral picture books. Here, Tafuri uses a "flip-book" technique to show readers similar settings first from the point of view of the sun, and then from that of the moon (or vice versa). She provides a pleasant introduction to many opposites in scenes that will be familiar to a young audience busy/restful city and country scenes, awake/sleeping animals and children. Details from one picture transform themselves in the opposite, e.g., sunflowers, shown in a sun-drenched field, appear in a brightly lit florist's window, viewed from a dark and quiet city street. A spare and repetitious text reinforces the continuity and contrast of daytime and nighttime experiences. A detached perspective and a panoramic distancing of colored-pencil and watercolor illustrations allow viewers to feel as though they are indeed looking down on the cycles of time.
From Publishers Weekly:
Tafuri's (The Brass Ring) "reversible" book inventively covers the same ground twice: first by daylight, then at night, after the reader flips the book over halfway through (the "back cover" acts as the "front cover" of What the Moon Sees). Each of the sun's sights"blue skies," "crowded barnyards," "sleeping owls"has a counterpart in the purview of the moon: "bright stars," "quiet barnyards," "hooting owls." The palette also changes from daylight's warm, bright tones to evening's cool blues, and the style from crisply defined illustrations to caliginous watercolor washes. The oversized daytime double-spread images of rabbits and clover or of children at a playground hold no surprises, but Tafuri's use of the day's cycle to structure the book is a pleasing hook. And, as a bedtime story, it provides closure, creating a tranquil nighttime world that seems just right for sleeping for everyone but owls, that is. Ages 2-up.
From Kirkus Reviews:
A double-ended book showing scenes from farm, woodland, city, and school, first by day and then, by turning the book over and beginning again from the "back," at night. The large format and extremely large type make this an ideal book for group sharing. Children intrigued by the novel layout are likely to match up the corresponding pictures—those who are careful will discover that there's actually one more daytime spread. Tafuri's fans will recognize the gray-and-black speckled hens from Early Morning in the Barn (1983), the marmalade cat from Junglewalk (1988), and even one of the sweet brown dogs from Who's Counting? (1986). From beautiful mixed-media artwork is fashioned an elegantly simple graphic demonstration of the neverending cycle of day and night.
