Stars

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Stars

Book Information

Category
Picture Book
Reader Personality Type
Illustrator
Publisher
Beach Lane Books (October 4, 2011)
Curriculum
Science Curriculum

Star light, star bright, first star I've seen tonight. Oh, the magic of stars in the sky. But what about the magic of the stars all around you. If you cut a shiny star out and put it in your pocket it becomes a magical, special thing waiting there to spread its magic far and wide. You can be a sheriff if you wear it on your shirt or make a wand out of a star and a stick.

This magical, whimsical journey through star land invites us to remember the wonder of the stars all around us whether waiting in moss or floating as dandelion seeds blowing through the spring sunshine. Those stars touch us individually and connect us as we look up to the night sky to see the "Oh, Wow" wonder of the stars offering us tremendous hope and possibilities. 40 pages  Ages 3-7

Recommended by:  Barb

********

"Would you like to swing on a star
Carry moonbeams home in a jar
And be better off than you are
Or would you rather be a mule?
-- Johnny Burke, "Swinging on a Star" (1944)
(I love hearing the Dave Van Ronk version from the late Sixties.)

"A star is how you know it's almost night.  As soon as  you see one,
there's another and another.  And the dark that comes doesn't  feel so dark."

One of the really special times at my farm,  here in the coastal hills of
California, is at two o'clock in the  morning on a clear, dark night when you
can see the Milky Way  stretching across the sky in all its glory.  Looking
up at the stars makes  me feel the vast limitlessness of what is out there.

Stars shine bright and so stars have come to have a positive  connotation.
If you are a reader of book reviews, you know that  many of the journals
designate essays of their favorites as "starred"  reviews.  Stars mean that
something is really special.

"Everybody's a dreamer and everybody's a  star
Everybody's in showbiz, it doesn't matter  who you are.
There are stars in every city
In every house and on every street.
And if you walk down Hollywood Boulevard
Their names are written in concrete."
-- Ray Davies, "Celluloid Heroes"

I love how this book STARS begins with a look at the  stars in the sky and then meanders through all sorts of ways we  use and think about stars.  We can cut out star shapes to use on wands  or as a sheriff badge or to mark a special date on a calendar.  We can  think of snowflakes and pumpkin flowers as star-shaped.  Throughout the  book, illustrator Marla Frazee has a great cast of young characters engaging in  these star-related activities.  My favorite is of a trio of children at  dusk, watching the first stars appear.

STAR is a book that brings the old preschool teacher out  in me.  It is a perfect circle time book.  I want to read this  book aloud and sing "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" and recite Myra Cohn  Livingston's poem "The Moon and a Star," and have stacks of  paper stars cut out to color and star-shaped sponges to print with.   And make sure that each and every kid knows that he or she is a  star.  STAR brings out all of this great stuff and is filled with stellar illustrations.

Stellar.

40 pages

ISBN:  978-1442422490

Reviewed by: Richie Partington, Librarian, California, USA

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