Wish Upon a Star: The Science, Magic and Meaning of Stars

Wish Upon a Star gives the reader a vibrantly illustrated insight into our galaxy and beyond. The book looks at stars from a scientific, historical and cultural perspective, allowing the reader to understand the importance of stars across all aspects of our lives on Earth.

Each double-page spread has a different focus and is beautifully illustrated, with short, age-appropriate captions which support the reader in building their vocabulary around the subject.

The early pages of the book have a scientific focus, with pages which look at ‘Galaxies’ and ‘When a Star Dies’. These pages balance easy-to-read insights with some useful topic vocabulary. The book tends to keep the information given fairly brief, giving opportunity for further investigation and research if needed.

The latter pages of the book consider how stars are central to the traditional tales across many different cultures, with insight into Chinese, Maori and the Anishinaabek communities, amongst others.

It is ideal as a core text for topic work around the Earth and Space and would be perfect for Key Stage Two classrooms.