How to Catch a Star

The word "sweet" captures the essence of this book for me. The illustrations are darling. Our hero, the little boy, loves stars so much! He tries so hard to get one! We really don't want him to be disappointed. When he finds a starfish instead, he finally gets a star of his own, and the picture of

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him reading a book about stars to his new friend is just too cute. I think this would be a fun read-aloud for pre-K and Kindergarten. It could also launch all kinds of questions such as, "what is something you have wanted very badly? What did you do to get it?"

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How to catch a star is a cute book about a boy how decides he wants a star. He tries everything he can do to get a star from the sky. One day he is walking on the beach and finds a star that washed up on the shore. He thinks to himself he finally got a star from the sky.

This is a really cute story about a boy who loves a star. He wishes to catch that star and befriends it. He tries what he can to reach it. And then he finds the star somewhere else, and not in the sky. The ending is totally unexpected for me. Lovely story. Amazing illustrations.

Fun book. Follow the little boy who wants to catch a star. He has so many creative ideas on how he may catch a star.
He finally "catches" a star.

How do you catch a star? Jeffer's little boy tries everything from jumping to attempting to lasso the star. Nothing works and the boy becomes very sad and walks near the beach where he seems a reflection of a star in the water. Of course he can't grab that one either, but he does find a starfish

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nearby and is last seen reading a book to it. This book reminded me of others (i.e. Papa, please get the moon for me; Kitten's first full moon ) but it still felt like it's own story. My only problem is that the boy took the starfish away from the sea!!! There had to be some other "star" he could find?!?

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Jeffers book is about a boy that really likes stars. He likes stars so much that he wants to catch and befriend one. He tries and tries but always fails to catch a star. One day he finds a starfish by the beach and takes it home where he reads to it!

It was simple, easy to follow, colorful. Another great choice!

This book has sweet spare illustrations done in beautiful and vibrant colors. Jeffers' use of watercolor gives the simple pictures texture and shading that make the illustrations stand out from the crowd. There are gorgeous dark blues and deep violets, people with cute stick legs, and lollypop

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trees with a square or two layered over the top. (My first graders loved the stick legs and squares in the trees.)

The Boy goes out looking for a star to be his friend, "they'd play hide-and-go-seek, take long walks together...". When Boy gets up at dawn to catch a star, he can't find any. He waits all day and "just before the sun was about to go away", a star pops out in the sky. He tried jumping up, climbing a tree, and a few other ideas, but the star was too far away. As he walks home he sees the star's reflection in the water. Not realizing what it was, he tried to pick it up, "but the star rippled through his fingers". But The Boy never stops trying and, in the end, finds something unexpected.

The text is simple, and while I wouldn't describe it as lyrical or poetic, it is peppered with lines like, "But in his heart the wish just wouldn't give up". I've liked Jeffers' books since seeing them for the first time last year, but thought they were a book best experienced as a reader or sharing with a child. I gave the book a try in June as part of an illustration unit with my first graders and they loved it! I really thought they would find the story to slow or the pictures to plain. I was happily proved wrong.

I love this book. It's not the best story I ever read, but coupled with the lovely pictures, it's a book that I enjoy returning to. I definitely recommend this book.

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This book is a very good representation on how children should never give up on their goals. The boy who wanted to catch the star tried multiple things like jumping and climbing a tree to reach the star. When his attempts did not work, he would think of another strategy to reach the star. In the

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end, the boy was able to capture a star because he would not give up. This teaches a great lesson to children. The book also contains great, colorful, and fun pictures that can help children with comprehension.

Summary: The book starts with a boy who loved to look at the stars. He decided that he wanted a star of his own. After he waited all day for a star to appear in the sky, he finally spotted one. He tried jumping, climbing a tree, and using a life preserver to capture the star in the sky. However, he did not succeed. He then found a reflection of the star on the water. Not realizing it was only a reflection, he tried to grab it from the water. He was very upset when all of his attempts at getting a star failed. Finally, a star washed ashore and the boy was able to capture his own star!

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I really enjoyed the book “How to Catch a Star” by Oliver Jeffers. I like the author’s simple illustrations including those that the picked the boy imagining himself being friends with the star taking walks together and playing hide and seek. I thought the story was interesting and liked all

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the examples of the boys failed attempts to catch a star like attempting to lasso it with his father’s life preserver. I also thought it was clever that the author had the boy find a starfish that became his actual star at the end of the book. I think the big idea of this book is the length’s we will go to find friendship which the author expresses very well.

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This book is about a boy going after his goal. He realizes that catching a star is unfeasible, however, star fish are stars- and he can definitely catch those! This book teaches that your dreams and goals may not always turn out how you want them to, but there is always a means to an end. I didn't

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love this book, but it was a good read to pass the time.

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There was a boy that loved stars, and he decided that he wanted to have his own star. The boy tried through various methods to get a star, but he could not. He thought about getting a space ship to fly up to the sky and get a star, but he only had a space ship that was made of paper. The boy also

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tried to fetch a life preserver to a star, but it was too heavy for him to carry. The next day the boy waited for a star at sunrise, but the star did not appear. The boy waited all day for the star, and a star came out from the lake. The book shows readers perseverance, and that some things are not what one expects them to be.

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This is a modern fantasy story about a boy who loves stars. He loves stars so much he wishes he could have one to himself that he could play hide-and-go-seek with and simply have as a friend. The little boy becomes creative and looks for a star during the daytime because they shine brightly only at

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night. He waits, and waits all day long to find a star. As the sun is about to go down completely the boy tries to grab the only star he sees in the sky. He goes through many extremes such as climbing a tree, and asking a seagull to help. Later that evening he sees a star in the water. Little does he know this is only it's reflection from the sky until he tries to grab the star. The little boy becomes sad and walks home only to find a star on the sand (a star fish to be exact) and the boy goes home joyful believing he found a star from the sky.

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Love the drawings, so-so story.

"Once there was a boy and the boy loved stars very much..." And so begins the simple narrative here, as the boy tries everything he can think of, from climbing a tree to using a lasso, to catch a sparkling star. All of his efforts prove futile, until he finds what he is looking for in an unexpected

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form (as a starfish), and at an unexpected time...

Originally published in 2004, How to Catch a Star is the first of four picture-books about the adventures of this boy - subsequent titles include Lost and Found, The Way Back Home and Up and Down - and was author/illustrator Oliver Jeffers' debut. It's certainly a lovely debut, and although not my favorite Jeffers book, it does feature that gentle sense of heart to be found in all of his stories, and the colorful, stylized artwork I have come to expect. Recommended to anyone searching for children's stories about the longing for something just out of reach, as well as to all fellow Jeffers fans.

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Raise your hand if you had a poster in your dorm at college with this famous Herman Hesse passage from Damien:

"And she told me about a youth who had fallen in love with a planet. He stood by the sea, stretched out his arms and prayed to the planet, dreamed of it, and directed all his thoughts to

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it. But he knew, or felt he knew, that a star cannot be embraced by a human being. He considered it his fate to love a heavenly body without any hope of fulfillment and out of this insight he constructed an entire philosophy of renunciation and silent, faithful suffering that would improve and purify him. Yet all his dreams reached the planet. Once he stood again on the high cliff at night by the sea and gazed at the planet and burned with love for it. And at the height of his longing he leaped into the emptiness toward the planet, but at the instant of leaping "it's impossible" flashed once more through his mind. There he lay on the shore, shattered. He has not understood how to love. If at the instant of leaping he had had the strength of faith in the fulfillment of his love he would have soared into the heights and been united with the star."

I’m betting Oliver Jeffers was one of those people. (And, yes, I was one). This first book by him as both author and illustrator reminds me a great deal of Hesse.

This book begins:

"One there was a boy
and the boy loved stars very much.
Every night the boy watched the stars from his window
and wished he had one of his very own.”

The boy tries various ways to catch a star, including climbing to the top of the tallest tree he could find. But still, he cannot reach it.

One night he sees a shooting star, and the next morning, on the beach, he sees a starfish sea shell, and is ecstatic to think that he caught a star of his very own.

Well, thank heavens! You wouldn’t want the boy to take the route of the character from the story recounted in Damien. This is a much better ending!

Jeffers is a whimsical and humorous illustrator, using watercolors and vague looking characters and landscapes so that, as he said in an interview, “people all over the world think that the boy is one of their friends and that the geography is where they’re from. And that allows people in and to fill in the details with their own personal details. So he’s a little bit of me, a little bit of everyone else who’s reading the story.”

Evaluation: This entertaining story is about the rewards of persistence, and maybe faith and ingenuity as well. In the ten years since the publication of this very popular book, there has also been a coloring book version, a star gazer kit, and even theatrical productions for kids based on the story.

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A little boy loves stars so very much that he vows to obtain one of his very own. Waiting all day until the Moon comes out but no matter what he does, a star is not in reach. And then, there was more waiting, more watching, more hoping until, he say a bright streak in the sky.

Waiting and watching,

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day time approaches, and lo and hehold, there isa star awaiting him on the shore. And, there he has it! A star of his very own. He has a star that he can take walks with. There is no more trying to jump up and grab it, he never is able to jump up that high. Climbing to the top of the tallest tree, only means it is still out of his reach. Trying to lasso a star with his father's life belt found on his boat doesn't work either.

I love the imagination of Oliver Jeffers. Stating that the little boy already flew to the moon last Tuesday and then ran out of petrol, and thus a star would still be out of his reach.

But, a baby star that falls from the sky is just what he needs.

It only takes time and perserverence, and then a star came to him.

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