It's a Star!

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star illustrated by Tracey Moroney

A simple illustrated board book version of the well known song, featuring a polar bear looking up at the star while he plays and then gets ready for bed, and ending with him dreaming about meeting the star.

This was the very first book that Mitchell actually sat on my lap to listen to! Admittedly it took months to get to that point. Months of singing the song while turning the pages, and pointing to the star, (teddy, sled, windmills, bees, etc.) on the pages while he wriggled to get down, and bounced around the room, racing back to my knee to look at the pages, and off again.

But finally he became intrigued with the detail on the pages, and began to find the teddy on the page, or look for the bees on the lampshade. (It took several months before he'd respond to requests to find the star!)

The illustrations are charming and surprisingly full of detail for such a small board book - only 10 pages, and 12 cm tall. I think that the size is part of it's appeal, as it's easy for very small hands to hold and turn pages, and board pages mean it survives even the roughest handling. Mitchell still asks for it now, and enjoys turning the pages, and telling me what he sees on each page.

I've just found out that Tracey Moroney is a NZ illustrator, I'll have to look out for more of her work.