Ray, Mary Lyn. Stars. Illustrated by Marla Frazee. Beach Lane, 2011. 32 pages (978–1–4424-2249–0)

Ages 2-6

“A star is how you know it’s almost night. / As soon as you see one, there’s another, and another. / And the dark that comes doesn’t feel so dark.” From opening pages that show the first evening star appearing in a dusky blue sky to the final image of a dark night sky strewn with an array of stars, Mary Lin Ray’s lyrical words and Marla Frazee’s luminous illustrations describe the stars all around us. A star cut from shiny paper and pinned to shirt designates a sheriff, or can convert a stick to a wand ideal for wish-making. There are days when you can feel “shiny as a star,” and days when the opposite is true. And stars can be found in many places: in the white flowers of strawberry plants before they bear fruit, in falling snowflakes, and as dandelion seeds blown into the air. Illustrations show a diverse cast of children and families finding the stars in their world in a child-centered picture book that ends with them gathered as a group watching nighttime stars appear in the sky above. These are temporarily obscured by the bloom of firework stars before reappearing as they always do, “every night. Everywhere.”  © Cooperative Children’s Book Center