Our Stars: A Delightful Picture Book About Stars and the Universe for Children

by Anne Rockwell

Scientists use telescopes and satellites to study the stars. But even though they're far away, stars are part of your world, too! Just lift up your eyes to see.
Anne Rockwell explains the universe with bright pictures and simple text in a book that will delight any curious child's mind!

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

24 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1999

Reviews

[Angie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good introductory book for several space related concepts. My purpose was to address stars/constellations, but it also goes into the sun, planets, solar system, moon, meteors, comets, and telescopes. Broader than I was looking for, but without an overwhelming amount of information for each concept. We spent the most time on the constellation pages, and the kids enjoyed the connection to constellations and the early explorers we have been learning about. We had fun comparing the pictures that people made from groupings of stars to give them their names to the actual groupings. Big dipper and little dipper made sense to us. Leo seemed like a stretch. This is one they could have easily read on their own (and maybe they will before it goes back to the library), but I was glad I read it with them so we could have those jumping off points for discussion.

[Cheyenne Bryant · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book "Our Stars" by Anne Rockwell is about a curious child that explores the night sky. While scientists look at stars with telescopes, we can look up in the night sky and observe them too! The author uses bright illustrations and simple words to keep even the youngest reader engaged. I would use this book in a second grade classroom in order to address the following standard: S2E1: Obtain, evaluate, and communicate information about stars having different sizes and brightness.
After reading this book as a class, I would transition into an activity using various sized balls that allowed them to model the differences in sizes of stars in the sky.

[Hannah Marshall · Rating 5 out of 5]

Genre: informational
Reading level: K-2

This would be a great book to read to a classroom when discussing astronomy. It presents the information basic enough that it wouldn’t go over the students head but still includes important facts. The illustrations are very vibrant and colorful. They go along very well with the information and help to understand the information better. I would definitely include this in my future classroom library.

[Destiny Deaton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Our Stars was a great, fun read that taught readers about the solar system. Students would learn words such as, orbit, meteor, and commit. Also learning about the moons of planets and how our moon looks like it changes size every night, but this is just the amount of light shinning on earths moon, so its all we can see. This book is an amazing read to introduce the solar system!

[Matthew Conley · Rating 4 out of 5]

I personally think this book would be enough to spark a child interest in astronomy. It has the basic definition of stars, planets, moon, constellations, comets, meteors, etc. It also has nicely illustrated models our solar system and beyond, too. As someone who loves this subject, I would recommend this book to any child who loves science who has a huge curiosity about the world.

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Big, bright illustrations and very simple text about the stars and planets. A nice introduction for the youngest crowd, this could be used as a springboard to discuss planets or stars or constellations in more depth.

[Abigail · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think this is a great introductory or supplementary book with a space lesson. The words are simple and easy to understand. I love the illustrations throughout the book. I think this book gives great facts about our space in the view of a child. It could provide great vocabulary words.

[June Brault · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kindergarten - 3rd Grade
Genre: Informational Nonfiction

This is was an interesting book about astronomy. I think that the information in the book is just enough and easy for students to understand. The illustrations are very colorful.

[Read Ribbet · Rating 3 out of 5]

Now 20 years old, this accessible text can still serve as an introductory text about astronomical concepts and terms. It would be a good mentor nonfiction text for how to write similar informational texts. Technical words are defined in context in the narrative descriptions.

[Valeria Vlasova · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book "Our Stars" easily explains to children the universe. This book has good pictures of stars, constellations, and the solar system with a good explanation of the stars and the universe.

[Jo Oehrlein · Rating 3 out of 5]

Feels like pages of a lower elementary school textbook. Each page is pretty disjoint from everything prior, so there's no continuity, no story. Formatting looks dated.

[Cecile · Rating 3 out of 5]

No page numbers.

[Maki · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great descriptions of the stars and what they are used for.

[Laura · Rating 1 out of 5]

This simple picture book describes stars, planets, comets, meteors, and other celestial phenomena with brightly colored illustrations and short sentences. The illustrations depicting children looking at the heavens are charming, but the depictions of stars, planets, and the solar system are hopelessly over-simplified to the point of inaccuracy. The author describes complicated astronomy concepts in simple language that will confuse young readers, such as “Some stars are so far away that their fire has burned out by the time the brightness reaches us”—a true statement, but too complex for young readers to decipher. The intended age level is pre-school through early elementary, but those readers would be better off looking at the night sky themselves or finding a different book.

CIP: “A simple introduction to the stars, planets, and outer space.”

Negative reviews in Hornbook (“presentation of information is haphazard”) and SLJ (suggests Gail Gibbons’ Stargazers as a better alternative).

[Colleen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Our stars is a non fiction picture book geared toward primary readers. This books provides a young reader with an introduction to our solar system. Illustrated with bright and bold colors, shows a child what he or she might see in the night sky. It also discusses the difference between day and night. This book takes a complex concept and puts it into terms a child can understand. New vocabulary is well explained and enhanced by corresponding illustrations. This book is designed to be read by an adult to a child. It prompts a child to ask big questions about our universe. This book could be used in a classroom to introduce our universe.

[Rob · Rating 3 out of 5]

H-bomb has been asking a lot about stars ("not planets--STARS") so I picked up a couple of "for kids" astronomy books from the library for him. This was one of them.

It was... OK. You can do the read-aloud in about 5-10 minutes and it's pretty no-nonsense. Not much in the way of hard science, but enough for a three-year-old, and enough not to enrage the empirically-leaning parent.

[Kellee Hao · Rating 4 out of 5]

Grade: 2nd

Need a book to introduce your students to stars and anything that relates to outer space and our Earth? Choose this book. It will help your students understand about how the world revolves and why the stars are more important as they seem. This would be a great addition to the science portion of your classroom library.

[London Richards · Rating 3 out of 5]

This simple picture book describes stars, planets, comets, & meteors. Our stars is a non fiction picture book geared toward primary readers. This books provides a young reader with an introduction to our solar system. Illustrated with bright and bold colors, shows a child what he or she might see in the night sky. It also discusses the difference between day and night!

[Gianina · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a good informational book that breaks down outer space in a way small children can understand. The illustrations were simplified in a way that appealed to me. I just wish there had been something about the book that had been a little more attention grabbing. My daughter just wasn't as engaged by this book as would have been nice.

[Amber Lynch]

This book is a simple introduction to the stars, sun, and planets. The students could use this book to find out about the sun our largest star. They could investigate facts about the sun and do a report using the format The Most Important Thing about the sun is...

[Michelle Brandstetter · Rating 3 out of 5]

EL Skills - Print motivation, letter knowledge, & narrative skills. Activities - Read, talk, & dream. And knowledge of the world around us and even things out of this world! Quick, come here outside, lay on your back in the driveway, the walkway, or on the grass and just look at those stars!

[Matthew · Rating 2 out of 5]

Read this to my six year as we are studying the solar system at home school. Some of the facts in this book left him scratching his head. The reading level and pictures are at a low level. Some of the concepts presented are at too high of a level for the presentation.

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very simple pictures and text in this nonfiction informative picture book about stars. It isn't perfect especially because of the simplicity but does a good job at introducing basic concepts-- some pages can get confusing but those can be skipped. PS-1

[Cara · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a cute little book with information about our solar system, well, our night sky specifically. Explains about planets, moons, stars, constellation, etc. The pictures were good and the information was clear and concise.

[Brooke · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book would be nice for explaining stars to children one-on-one. There are simple pictures and text. I would not use this book for storytime because I don't think the children could sit still through it.

[Eireanne]

On the suggested summer reading list for students.

[Katie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoy this author. I liked the way she explained our solar system in this book. Great illustrations!!!

[Meg · Rating 4 out of 5]

a great, informative book for kids about the stars and other basic astronomy. it really made j start thinking about astronomy.

[Jamie Forrest · Rating 4 out of 5]

Simple but concise introduction to the solar system for younger readers, though it is older and still calls Pluto a planet.

[Katie Fitzgerald · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read at family story time on 4/25/11.

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