The Sun Is My Favorite Star

by Frank Asch

There are many stars in the galaxy. But only the sun wakes us in the morning, helps us to grow, plays hide-and-seek behind the clouds, and paints pretty pictures in the evening sky.
Frank Asch's gentle text and vivid illustrations celebrate the unique and wondrous qualities of our favorite and most powerful star. This is the third in a group of books for young children that explore the natural world.

Genres: Picture Books, Science, Space, Childrens, Nature, Storytime, 1st Grade

32 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 2000

About the author

Frank Asch is an American children's writer, best known for his Moonbear picture books.

Asch published his first picture book, George's Store, in 1968. The following year he graduated from Cooper Union with a BFA. Since then he has taught at a public school in India, as well as at a Montessori school in the United States, conducted numerous creative workshops for children. He has written over 60 books, including Turtle Tale, Mooncake, I Can Blink and Happy Birthday Moon. In 1989 he wrote Here Comes the Cat! in collaboration with Vladimir Vagin. The book was awarded the Russian National Book Award and was considered the first Russian-American collaboration on a children's book.

Asch lived in Somerville, New Jersey where he and his wife home-schooled their son Devin.

He currently lives in Vermont with his wife, Jan.

Reviews

[Cheryl · Rating 4 out of 5]

Illustration on mine more spiritual, in a way, with the girl holding her arms up saluting the sunrise. But this is an introduction to the concept of stellar astronomy for the little ones, just as some of the Bear books are an introduction of lunar astronomy for those even littler. I love original science books for kids, and I appreciate Asch's bright & friendly illustrations. A winner for home-schoolers and preschools.

[Nadina · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved the repetition of the title throughout the book. The illustrations were simple, as was the text. I used this for a toddler storytime and it worked well.

[Diana · Rating 3 out of 5]

Oddly, this is cataloged as non-fiction. I'm not sure I agree with that placement. While it does factually state repeatedly that the sun is a star. it ascribes things to the sun that are not really scientific, such as stating that the sun waits for him to come out and play and follows him everywhere he goes. As a picture book about the sun it works wonderfully, and was a great addition to our solar eclipse program, but as a non-fiction title it is a bit lacking. Not the author's fault, but I do think marketing might be a little off since this came to us the way it did.

[Christine Turner · Rating 3 out of 5]

There are many stars in the galaxy. But only the sun wakes us in the morning, helps us to grow, plays hide-and-seek behind the clouds, and paints pretty pictures in the evening sky.
Frank Asch's gentle text and vivid illustrations celebrate the unique and wondrous qualities of our favorite and most powerful star. This is the third in a group of books for young children that explore the natural world.

I like this book for younger children.

[Sarah Harper · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is gentle in context, yet appealing to the concepts we need to learn about the fact that our sun is a star. The pictures and text tell us how important our sun is. This book will drive young readers to be thinking about good discussion topics relative to the sun being a star and how it affects us everyday.

[Kristin Fisher · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an okay book. A girl really loves the sun and talks about all of the things that the sun does. Would be a good book for younger children. Children could start to learn about personification, as the sun is almost talked about like a person in some parts of this story.

[Traci · Rating 3 out of 5]

the only thing i found wrong with it was that it was kind of low-key trying to teach little kids how to do things that could get them in trouble, such as using a magnifying glass to burn holes in leaves without supervision around

[Shari (Shira) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quiet little book crammed with lots of content in bite-size pieces for the youngest readers (or listeners).

[J · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cute book. The cat is my favorite part.

[Cara · Rating 2 out of 5]

A cute, short story about the sun being a star.

[Skylar · Rating 4 out of 5]

Feels babyish for my kids (aged 4 and 6). Maybe a good introduction to the idea if you haven't encountered it before, but not useful for my kids.

[Valerie · Rating 4 out of 5]

“The Sun is my Favorite Star” is a short picture book about a boy who loves the sun. He goes on to explain that the sun is always there for him to brighten up his day or wake him up in the morning. The book introduces many of the sun’s jobs to a young reader. Every page has a large and colorful illustrations of what the sun is doing at that point in the day.
Response:
This is a cute informational book about what the sun does for us. The little boy in the story loves the sun because of all it does for him. My favorite job that the boy listed “sometimes it goes away…and brings me back a big bouquet” ( n.p). The illustrations really help the reader visualize what is going on. On the pages with this quote are a picture of a rainy day with the boy holding an umbrella and then on the next page, the sun is shining and there is a huge rainbow. Through the illustrations I can almost feel how happy the boy is to see the rainbow!
Classroom Connection:
Teachingbooks.net suggests to turn this book into a language arts lesson for young students. In the lesson plan, the teacher prints out the words “the, sun, is, my, favorite, star, it, to, me, up, and, in, hot, wall, sky” on sentence strips. The words are then cut apart and given to groups of students. The students are instructed to arrange the words as they are on the pages of the book. Then, they should try to make new sentences out of the same words.
(http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/le...)

CCSS:
Grade: preK-2 lexile: 70L GR:E
Ages: 5, 6, and 7

[(NS) Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

This story explores the natural world and leads a child to discover that the sun is his favorite star. The story begins with the sun waking up the young child, and continues to follow him through his day. The sun waits for him to come out and play and follows him wherever he goes. The sun even plays hide and seek with him, but always comes back, even at night when it sends the moon to keep him company.
The short text and beautiful artwork that is bursting with color on each page makes this book very appealing to young listeners. Children will enjoy the main character as he travels through his day. The repetitive story line is very simple and appealing to young readers. The story explains the unique and wondrous qualities of our favorite and most powerful star.

This story would be appropriate for students in preschool through first grades.

[Theresa Reifon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Format/Length: Picture book; 32 pages

Theme(s): Nature, Value of everything big and small, cherish and appreciate everything

Review:

This would be a great book to use as a read-aloud for younger students. Not only is it beautifully illustrated, young children can learn from its content. The book is about the sun. The reader quickly learns from the title that the sun is actually a star, and the sun is the main character's favorite star. The book shows how the sun is a part of everyone's life in many ways as the main character describes the ways the sun is a part of her life. Even though this book contains the fact that the sun is a star, there isn't much more information about the sun presented in the book. I feel that there could have been more said about the sun to appeal to the curious minds of young children.

[Lisa Skripps · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Sun is My Favorite Star, by Frank Asch, is a wonderful children’s book that explains all of the fantastic things that the sun does. Frank Asch does a great job of teaching young children about the sun in a way that they can understand through the use of a little boy. This little boy adores the sun and talks about how the sun wakes him up in the morning, dries up the dew, and paints beautiful pictures in the sky (sunsets) at night. Another reason that I loved this book was the amazing illustrations. Children will not want to put this book down, and will read and reread it over and over again.

[Lauma · Rating 2 out of 5]

Telling a story about the sun, the author uses personification such as, "The sun peeks through a hole in the fence...It sometimes plays hide and seek." At the end of the book, the author makes the connection that the sun is a star. With an illustration of the night sky, he writes, "All stars in the sky are beautiful. But so far...the sun is my favorite star." Clearly this book is for young children, ages 4 and 5. It think it would have been better to explain how the sun is a star in the beginning of the story and shared more facts and information to appeal to the curious minds of young readers.

[Ch_beverlyatwood · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well known Frank Asch, author and illustrator has given young children a basic picture book describing the sun as a star. The text is very simple and yet it conveys the central idea of the sun being a star. The science concepts covered such as day/night and weather are clearly stated. I would use this as a resource when studying the sun. No complicated facts, just beautiful pictures that bring the point home.

[Katherine Fountain · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Sun is My Favorite Star talks about how all of the stars in the sky are beautiful but the sun is the boys favorite star because it helps him and is a part of his daily life. This story would be great to introduce astronomy to younger students. The Sun is My Favorite Star also emphasizes the importance of the sun in our daily lives. For example, the boy says the sun wakes him up every morning then goes to sleep with him too. Wonderful story for astronomy at younger ages.

[Ariel · Rating 4 out of 5]

The sun is favorite star is a great book for young students. The book explains all the cool things the sun does from the perspective of a little boy. The little boy shares the reasons why the sun is his favorite star and how it’s part of his daily life, from waking him up in the morning to going to sleep with him at night. This book would be a wonderful book for young students interested in science and nature. The illustrations are very nice and it helps the young readers have a better insight.

[Amy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I liked this book. It is a simple book which tells you why the kid in the story loves the sun. The pictures cover the majority of the pages, and each page has one line describing why the sun is his favorite star.

I recommend this book for Pre-1st grade. It is a very easy read. I would recommend this book to English Language learners because it easy, and would help them with simple sentence structure.

[Alysia]

This book would be awesome for the introduction of times of the day. I could have a discussion with the children about the positions of the sun at different times of the day and have them show me on prop clock about what time it is in the story. Also, using this book for a class choral reading would be good, there is already a chorus within the story and the lines are short enough to give exactly one page to each student for their turn.

[Zoila Avila · Rating 3 out of 5]

The sun is this little girl's favorite star because it wakes her up in the morning, it dries up the morning dew, it is bright and hot, and sometitmes it plays hide-and-seek with her. All the stars in the sky are beautiful but the sun is her favorite! This can be a good introduction to a lesson about the solar system or how the sun makes things grow. The illustrations are very bright and vivid.

[Allyson L · Rating 4 out of 5]

When learning about the sun and its purpose, this a cute book to turn to. It talks about all sorts of benefits of the sun and how it helps the Earth. Entertaining and informative. The boy really loves the sun because of all that it does for us, whether its hiding behind clouds to make it colder, or rising and making the flowers bloom. He loves the sun!

[Monique Clem · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Sun I My Favorite Star
By: Frank Asch
Age: P-8

This book is really cute. It's a story about the sun. A little boy tells why the sun is his favorite star. It explains all the things the sun can do and unlike all the stars in the sky this is the only one that can do all those things. I would read this to my son. Very cute book.

[Teresa · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a really simple but fun book for children. It's a simple read that I'm sure children will appreciate. The illustrations really complement the text as well, the illustrations are simple but interesting.

[Katie Fitzgerald · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read at Baby/Toddler Lap Time on 7/13/12: http://storytimesecrets.blogspot.com/...

Read at Drop-In Story Time on 8/2/13: http://storytimesecrets.blogspot.com/...

[Alice · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was simple and cute because The Sun is also my favorite star.. I loved the illustrations although we couldn't decide if the child is a boy or girl. I think it is wearing a skirt so I learn towards girl but WHO knows! Cute book!

[Andrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like this book okay (and my son, of course, likes it okay, I suppose), but I've seen stronger books from Mr. Asch, here. Bear's Bargain is a classic in my household. I was a little let down by this work, honestly.

[Lizet Serrano]

This book states the many purposes of the sun. The boy in the story explores and shows why exactly the sun is his favorite star. I think this book would be great to introduce and explain new science concepts.

[Jenni · Rating 5 out of 5]

Quite possibly my favorite Frank Asch. I think of the "bouquet" line every time I see a rainbow.