Stars! Stars! Stars! [Hardcover]

Bob Barner (Author)

Book Description

Grade Level: P and up

In this lively book, award-winning author-artist Bob Barner takes readers on a ride through outer space to visit distant planets and dazzling stars. The simple rhyming text and colorful torn-paper collage illustrations make this book perfect for the very youngest readers, and the Meet the Planets and Meet the Galaxy sections, both bursting with facts, will engage older readers as well. Stars! Stars! Stars! will rocket aspiring stargazers right out of this world!

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In this poetic ode to the night sky, Barner (Bugs! Bugs! Bugs!) gives a child's awestruck account of the stars and the solar system's nine planets. Collages of cut and torn paper, saturated with deep blues and luminous yellows, suggest early evening. A silhouetted child hoists a telescope and looks up at a sprinkling of stylized five-pointed stars, while rhyming phrases dance and swirl across the pages: Shooting stars streaking tails of sparkling light The Big Dipper holding a scoop of night. The diaphanous poetry and the radiant, imprecise illustrations complement one another, but Barner stumbles in his delivery of quantitative information, which seems misplaced in this exercise. While the casual main text introduces the planets and pictures some fanciful stellar groupings (which appear to be based on the Hare, Whale and Little Fox constellations), a glossary of astronomical terms declares, There are 88 constellations in the sky and The Sun has been burning for about 5 billion years. This open-ended data interrupts the reverie without providing real substance for reflection. Barner's pleasingly illustrated volume is most appealing when it marvels at the firmament. Ages 4-8.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal

Kindergarten-Grade 2-The author who led children on a tour of the skeletal system in Dem Bones (Chronicle, 1996) now takes them on a similarly energetic tour of the solar system, illustrated with busy paper collages, predominantly in saturated blues and purples, through which lines of rhymed commentary undulate. As if that's not enough, he then recapitulates and expands upon previous information with three pages of random, unrhymed facts about the planets and the universe in general. As lines like "Constellations that take shape when I connect them with lines Milky Way stars shining two hundred billion times The Sun that burns with golden light Hot planet Mercury turning slowly in the night" demonstrate, Barner has no ear for rhythm. Furthermore, viewers will have to guess which of the starry shapes scattered about the spread devoted to the four outer planets is Pluto. The enthusiasm is commendable, and infectious, but for library collections, this should be considered only after more reliable (and readable) titles like Gail Gibbons's The Planets (Holiday, 1993).
John Peters, New York Public Library
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 32 pages
• Publisher: Chronicle Books (March 1, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0811831590
• ISBN-13: 978-0811831598
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 8.4 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #315,719 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This book may teach your little one more than you think!, June 10, 2002

By 

Julia "chicago-peach" (Oak Park, IL, United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Stars! Stars! Stars! (Hardcover)

I bought this book for my just-turned-three year old daughter. She likes it a lot and requests it by name. I'm sure that it would be just as suitable for younger children. It is a nice introduction to the solar system, and the universe around us.

My daughter likes the simple illustrations and the rhyming text.

What I had not realized when I first reviewed this book is how much this book really teaches. Imagine my surprise when my daughter rattled off the names of the planets, in order from the sun, one day. I was also surprised that she saw a poster of stars and told me "look constellations!" (Well it was a three year old's approximation of the word "constellations" but I knew what she meant.) I would never have pushed her to learn about the solar system, but I'm pleased that this book gave her a way to follow a natural interes.

5.0 out of 5 stars Stars! Stars! Stars! Children's book, July 7, 2011

By 

copcycler - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Stars! Stars! Stars! (Hardcover)

My daughter loves the children's short movie of the same title and was delighted to receive this book. The quality of the publication and the faithfulness to the short, through both the text and illustrations, are wonderful.