Stars! Stars! Stars!

by Nancy Elizabeth Wallace

Nancy Elizabeth Wallace continues to explore difficult topics while making them more accessible to young readers with her signature cut-paper illustrations and, in this book, photographs from NASA. Minna is a stargazer. She looks at the nighttime sky and wonders, What are stars? Minna’s friends wonder about stars too. How far away are they? Are they really shaped like stars? Is the sun a star? At the Children’s Museum, Minna and her friends visit STAR SPACE. The children learn…and wonder…learn…and wonder. Then they go outside and stargaze! Recipes for star-shaped food and an activity page are included.

Genres: Picture Books, Space, Science, Nonfiction, Childrens, Astronomy

40 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2009

About the author

Nancy Elizabeth Wallace attended the University of Connecticut, and majored in sociology and psychology with a minor in art history, then continued on for a master’s degree in child development.

For many years, she worked at Yale-New Haven Hospital with children and teenagers as Child Life Specialist helping children to understand what was going to happen if they needed to have a medical test or an operation or a cast.

Then she took two adult education courses, one was about traditional Scherenschnitt (share- en -sssh -nit) scherren means scissors, schnitt means cut. The other was about writing and illustrating children’s books. When she brought in a
cut-paper illustration, the teacher said, “You’ve found your medium!”

Nancy is married to Peter Banks. They have been married for more than 30 years. He is a high school Physics teacher.

They live in Branford, Connecticut.

Reviews

[Terry]

I thought this was a fantastic book with a fun way for children to learn about space. Unfortunately it did become very technical. Get the full review.

[Elizabeth Edwards · Rating 5 out of 5]

not what i expected but such a learning experience ... fun times. wanting to learn about stars and the sky? check this read out. very well laid out.

[Melanie Gaum · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great intro book to outer space and stars. It might be too serious for a group story time, so one-on-one or with a few kids would work better. It had cute activity ideas and I liked the bunnies.

[Aarvik · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's a lot of thing for Aarvik to read for now. He just like few stars for now.

[Cheryl · Rating 3 out of 5]

Star charts and bunnies...

The Amazon blurb says this book is recommended for children 6 - 8 years old. The cute bunny illustrations are perfect for that age group, I believe. But...

This was kind of a hodgepodge book to me. There are recipes, activities - perfect for the age group - but then there are adult level illustrations of solar systems, planets, moon phases, star charts and more.

I enjoyed the book and actually learned from it but I think the teaching materials would be better suited for older children (maybe 8 - 10 years old) and without the bunnies. Or keep the bunnies and put in more age-appropriate teaching materials.

The book is beautiful with reinforced binding and lovely dustcover and colorful illustrations. I, as an adult, especially enjoyed the NASA pictures of the different galaxies and I liked the easy-to-understand star chart.

NOTE: I received a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review, which I have given.

[Betty Kim · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is about ‘solar system’. This book also can be appropriate for Kindergarteners to 3rd graders. This book is a fantastic book to read to the students before the lesson about ‘solar system’. This book answers lots of different questions about star. For example, sun is the only star in the solar system, and it only takes 8 minutes for the light from the sun star to reach Earth. Also, stars are in the sky all day, but because the sun is so bright we cannot see the star during day time. The students will enjoy the book and also this book has very colorful pictures which can be helpful for visual learners. I also learn some information that I did not know before reading this book.

[Teresa · Rating 5 out of 5]

This WONDERful book is about a little mouse that is curious about stars and the solar system. Her mom lets her invite some friends over and they eat all kinds of star food (the book has recipes and ideas for real families), they go to the star museum, and they stargaze in the yard. This book is full of facts about stars and the solar system with a cute fiction story.

[Jackie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Minna, a rabbit, and her friends wonder about the stars in the sky. At the museum, they learn about astronomy and the solar system.

Too long for a read-aloud during storytime, but filled with lots of facts to reference.

Used for "Sky and Stars" Storytime: October, 2011.

[Karen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Um, there is a lot of information in this book. A lot of information in a picture book is not a bad thing, per se, but it does become problematic when it drowns out the very thin thread of a story. The best thing about this book was the star chart, which was, admittedly, pretty great.

[Valerie]

too wordy for a storytime read, but teachers may like this one for early elementary universe studies.

[Brittany N · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book can be used when discussing the solar system. It talks about stars.

[Stephanie Watson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a WONDERFUL kids book! It gives a lot of great information about starts. It's a fun way for kids to learn about stars.

[Jen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wallace tries to take quite a bit of information and make it readable through story book but it still came across a bit to overwhelming for the picture book group.

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun introduction. Milky Way, solar system, stars

[Kelly Powell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great to use as a read aloud.