Laura's Star

by Klaus Baumgart

Laura is often lonely but one night she sees a falling star and runs downstairs to find it lying damaged, on the pavement outside. Laura takes it to her room, mends it, and lays it tenderly on her pillow. She tells the star all her secrets but when she wakes in the morning, the star is gone.

Genres: Picture Books, Childrens, Fantasy, Fiction, Friendship, German Literature

32 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 1996

Reviews

[Matti Karjalainen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Klaus Baumgartin "Lauran tähti" (Weilin Göös, 1998) on kaunis ja liikuttava tarina pienestä tytöstä, joka saa kauan toivomansa sydänystävän taivaalta putoavasta tähdestä. Satutuntilaiset tykkäsivät ja sadunkertojaa itketti vähäsen. Uusi painos voisi olla paikallaan.

Lieneeköhän muuten kimmeltävä kuvitus ollut 1990-luvulla jonkinlainen juttu saksankielisellä alueella? Sveitsiläisen Markus Pfisterin Sateenkaarikalahan taisi sekin ilmestyä tuolloin.

[Christopher Syers · Rating 5 out of 5]

Let me paint a picture for you - as the evening settles, my 🌎 , my ♥️, my 🐣snuggles under the soft, warm blankets, eyes wide with anticipation. The gentle glow of the bedside lamp casts a cozy light. I open Laura's Star and before even beginning to read it aloud, my eyes moisten as I take in the beauty of the illustrations. I find the resolve to read the beautiful story of Laura and her 🌠 to Pip (my child). Pip hangs onto every word, slowly drifting into a world of dreams, comforted by the way my voice is conveying the masterful world building and story telling of Klaus. A perfect night. One that both Pip and I will remember until the day we die.

As many of you know, I don't have a child. But when I do, this will be one of the first books I read to them.

[Shirley Revill · Rating 5 out of 5]

A really magical children's story that my children and now my grandchildren love.
Perfect read for bedtime.

[Sonja Rosa Lisa ♡ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Laura steht am Fenster und beobachtet, wie ein Stern vom Himmel fällt! Sie sucht und findet ihn und nimmt ihn mit in ihr Zimmer. Dort verarztet sie ihn, doch am nächsten Tag ist der Stern verschwunden...
❤️😍😍❤️
Eine wirklich süße Geschichte! Ich habe es als Hörbuch gehört, aber ich glaube, als Buch ist es noch schöner, da man da die Illustrationen noch dazu anschauen kann.

[Maritina Mela · Rating 5 out of 5]

Το πήρα απόφαση, εδώ θα περνάω στα διαβασμένα και τα βιβλία που διαβάζω στα μικρά στη δουλειά!
Δεν ξέρω αν σε εκείνα άρεσε, εμένα όμως μού άρεσε αρκετά.

Η ιστορία έχει ως εξής: Η μικρή Λάουρα βρίσκει στο δρόμο ένα μικρό αστέρι που έχει πέσει από τον ουρανό κι έχει πληγωθεί. Το παίρνει λοιπόν υπό την προστασία της και το γιατρεύει, αποφασίζοντας να το κρατήσει κοντά της για πάντα. Όμως η λάμψη του, έχει αρχίσει σιγά σιγά να χάνεται, κι έτσι η Λάουρα για το δικό του καλό, αποφασίζει να το αφήσει να ανέβει ξανά στον ουρανό.

Μια πολύ γλυκιά ιστορία που έχει να κάνει με την ανιδιοτελή φιλία αλλά και με το ότι μερικές φορές, πρέπει να κάνουμε το καλύτερο για αυτούς που αγαπάμε, ακόμα κι αν εμείς κατά βάθος πονάμε.

Είναι σύντομη, με λεξιλόγιο που είναι εύκολο να γίνει κατανοητό από τα παιδιά (θα έλεγα από την ηλικία των 4 και πάνω) και φυσικά, με τρομερή εικονογράφηση.

Επίσης, διαβάζοντάς τη, συνειδητοποίησα πως κάτι μού θυμίζει η εικονογράφηση και σπάω το κεφάλι μου να θυμηθώ αν είναι από τα βιβλία που είχα κι εγώ μικρή. Θα μπορούσα να ρωτήσω και τους γονείς μου, αλλά δεν παίζει να θυμούνται.

If you made it this far, congratulations!
'Til next time, take care :) :) :)

[Kimberly · Rating 3 out of 5]

A little girl longs for a friend. A star falls from the sky and breaks on the pavement! She helps it, and she tells it all her secrets. It's her best friend, but it starts to die. It needs to get back to the sky. She sends it home, sad to lose it, but able to still look up and tell it all her secrets at night.

The star is foil! The children I nanny love touching it and looking at it.

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's really good to read

[Aimee · Rating 5 out of 5]

one of my favourite childhood books💗

[Laura Ferreira · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amei!! Li quando andava na primária 😍

[Alana · Rating 5 out of 5]

I used to read this a lot as a child and have recently come across it again! Such a fab picturebook with detailed illustrations to support the text!

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was another favourite of mine when I was a toddler, no prizes for guessing why. This is another one that I still actually have on my bookshelf, purely for the memories 🌟

[Josephine (biblioseph)]

Would you like to know a secret? For half my life, I was not Josephine, I was called Laura. This was one of the few books I received shortly after the name change and one of my favorites. The books about Josephine were far better, 'Jennifer and Josephine' and 'Josephine's 'Magination' stand out, and were far more my speed, but this one held up alright.

It's about a girl who finds a star and - if I remember correctly - she takes a self-built spaceship into the night sky and sets it back amongst it's friends. (It was a popular children's book series and even had a run as a cartoon!)

I've never had much use for stars in my reviews. On my book blog I've never used them. Taking instead an idea from a blog I love to simply recommend whether you read a book or not, whether you should buy a book or not. It's time I carried it over, because these stars, which rate passion rather than quality, do not belong to anyone other than ourselves. I don't want to tolerate my star ratings being mined for data. Whether for sales on amazon, or to be handed over in the future to those operating under the Patriot Act. GR exists in America, home of the free, after all.

The link is tenuous at best, but inspired by this children's picture book, I will be removing the stars and no longer rating with them on GR.Those that exist have already been loaded onto the servers, but they will not all be relevant in a years time. And in ten years - who knows.

I recommend you buy this book, the English translation most likely, for a girl named Laura, or any child you know who is interested in space or the stars. You may enjoy reading it yourself. If you have no children in your life, borrow it from the library. I really liked it.

[Lara Sorcha · Rating 4 out of 5]

Laura is a lonely, little girl who has always wanted a friend to share her secrets with. One night she is mesmerised by a glittering star falling from the sky, which lands broken, on the pavement. Laura rescues the star and takes it carefully to her room to fix it. There, whilst it is glowing warmly in her hands, Laura starts to confide in the star. She tells it all her secrets and then she falls asleep finally feeling as though she has a friend.

However when she awakes, the star has disappeared! Laura worries it was just a dream and spends her day feeling upset and alone. When evening arrives and Laura enters her room, she finds the star ‘shining like a thousand diamonds’. She is so happy that the star hadn’t left without saying goodbye. They then spend the evening playing games and reading together.

Yet as the evening went on, Laura noticed that the star was beginning to fade and cool. The star was dying. So, in a brave attempt to save the star for the second time, Laura ties it to four balloons and releases it out of the window. The star twinkled as it went up in to the night sky. Laura didn’t have the star in her hands any more, but she could still look out of her window at night, and whisper her secrets to the star. Laura knew that the star would always be listening to her, so she would never be alone again.

This is a magical story which can help children to understand both the importance of friendship and that sometimes friendship means letting go of the most precious things to you. This story can also be interpreted as a metaphor for children dealing with bereavement, as the star symbolises their lost loved one.

[Alex · Rating 3 out of 5]

This story is about a little girl named Laura who longs for a friend she can talk to and share her secrets with. One night as she stares out the window at the night sky wishing for that special friend, she spots a sparkling star falling from the sky. The beautiful star falls out of the sky and lands near the little girls apartment. She ends up rescuing the star and bandaging its broken point , making it the perfect friend she cuddles to for the rest of the night and shares her secrets with. However, in the morning Laura waked up to find her new star friend missing. As she is sad throughout the rest of the day searching for it, when she goes up to bed at night she see's a light gleaming from her room. She opens the door to find her bandaged star in the same place she had left it; she just couldn't see it at night! While she is happy to have her friend back, the star is getting cold and dying so she does something any good friend would do and lets it go back into the night sky where it belongs.

This book is a cute little story about friendship. Its shows kids that sometimes we have to let our friends go or give something away we love. Overall, I think its an adorable little book to share with young children. They will love looking at the water color illustrations and feeling the textured star on every page!

[Polarka · Rating 3 out of 5]

Laura jedného večera nájde spadnutú hviezdu. Opraví jej zlomený cíp a teší sa, že má doma ozajstnú nebeskú hviezdičku. Po čase ale hviezda začne blednúť. Laura si uvedomí, že musí hviezdičku vrátiť späť na oblohu.
Milý príbeh o tom, že niekedy sa musíme vzdať toho, čo máme radi. Pretože je to tak lepšie.
Zaujímvým textom, ktorého nie je veľa a milými celostranovými ilustráciami je kniha perfektná pre prvé samostatné čítanie. Pre deti od 3 do 7 rokov.

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

Suitable for foundation and ks1 children. This book makes a great follow up activity for a 'sources of light' lesson. Children can help to identify sources of light throughout the book. They learn that stars can only be seen at night when it is dark and that they cannot be seen in daylight.

[Sebrina · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Laura’s Star” is a cute little story about the beauty of friendship, and the hardship that comes with having to let go of something we hold dear to us. The plot follows the story of a lonely little girl named Laura who wishes for a friend and finds one in the form of a fallen star that she patches up. She grows very attached to the star, but she soon realizes that the longer it stays down on Earth with her, the closer it is to dying, so she sends it back to the sky. Despite having to say goodbye, Laura continues to speak to the sky every night in hopes that the star is still out there, listening. The message of the story is a great one that everyone will go through at least once in their lives. The illustrations are beautifully done and extremely detailed. They are warm and bright, drawing in the reader’s attention. The voice I interpreted as I read was gentle and animated, along with melancholy at times.

[Katia Yanez · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was a pleasant mixture of both visuals, and text, neither overpowered the other in the telling of the plot, instead they both supported each other. Overall, the book was wonderful, it offered an important lesson that many need to learn, and that is to know when to let something go. Laura loved the little star with all her heart, but she knew that the star couldn't stay with her, it had to go back to where it came from. It's an innocent way to introduce the lesson, and I feel that children will find it useful, or later connect it back to the story.

[Hannah Parson · Rating 4 out of 5]

For Y1/2. Children can find the star located on each page whilst reading. I like how beautifully descriptive this book is 'the distant stars that winked and glittered like tiny jewels in the night sky'. A really good book for children experiencing loneliness whilst also demonstrating that it is okay to not feel happy all the time, 'Laura felt cold and empty, as if all the light had drained out of her'. This book mimics the message that 'friends are like stars, you can't always see them but you know they are always there' (an especially good book for our current times).

[Miriam Perez · Rating 5 out of 5]

Laura's Star by Klaus Baumgart is a such a charming picture book. The illustrations are so colorful and the way the star is made of a shiny material, shows the attention to detail the author put into this story. There are also many tow page illustration that let the reader feel as if they're part of the story.
The storyline is quite interesting. Especially in the middle of story it makes you want to keep turning the pages.
The tone of the story is very lighthearted and I can see how much any reader will enjoy this story.

[Cara Byrne · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Laura didn't feel sad anymore, for her friend was back where it belonged. Each night when she went to bed, she could whisper her secrets into the darkness, knowing that the little star was somewhere out there listening."
A bedtime story about hope and friendship and joy. Central theme: If you love something, let it go. This book also reminded me a lot of _The Rainbow Fish_ in terms of using shimmery paper to differentiate the star from the rest of the book. There is something compelling about this element to many young readers and memorable to adults!

[abookishuniverse · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is another book that I absolutely adored as a child and also one of the one´s that ultimately made me a reader. This story shows a lot of values that an be applied to adults as well as to children. Another book I will preserve for my future kids to read. Laura is a nice girl who wishes for a friend and gets her wish granted in the form of a star, the story ends in such a heartwarming way.

[Elise Evans · Rating 3 out of 5]

Laura's star starts with the girl longing for a friend. Once the star comes the girl is so excited. She cares for the star and tells all her secrets to the star. This story shows how the girl was in need of a friend to tell all her secrets to. It is very odd that the star begins to die at the end and needed to be put back into the sky.

[Cami Arueste · Rating 4 out of 5]

Me encanto este libro más por la originalidad que el autor le puso para contar un tema difícil en forma más "suave" para los niños, ya que es difícil explicarles a los niños estos temas ya que a veces no sabes como reaccionarían. Impecable el detalle de las ilustraciones y de la paleta de colores que contextualiza y le da un surgimiento a la historia.

[Beth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Man, I loved this book as a child - 5*

Reading something for RE teaching on the gift of love and friendship, and this was recommended. Then, I had a flashback to how much I adored this book. 6-year-old me would be disappointed in 22-year-old me...

What a flashback!

[Jana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ich finde die Geschichte einfach total süß! Ist natürlich eher etwas für kleine Kinder und beherbergt auch keine moralisch anspruchsvolle Geschichte, aber immerhin eine schöne Message zum Ende. Sehr niedlich.

[Adi Friedlová - Čaro kníh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Toto je také ňuňu ♥

[Georgina Tew · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lovely storyline, gives a clear understanding of friendship and being helpful.

[Emma Higley]

A beautiful book about friendship, loneliness, and accepting that sometimes people can't always be with us, but that it is OK to let them go as they will always be there.

[Anne B · Rating 4 out of 5]

I must have read this to my kids a hundred times. "If you love something, let it go," type message.