Ten Wishing Stars

Since we didn't have a book about Tanabata itself, we made do with this book, Ten Wishing Stars: A Countdown to Bedtime Book. That makes it sound like a hardship, which of course it wasn't!

This is a delightful story about 10 sheep that each make a wish. It's a great bedtime book with a play on words. Sheep that count instead of counting sheep. Both my two year old and four year old have enjoyed reading it once a day for the last week, which means the images and prose are good enough to keep two fickle pre-choolers entranced.

This was a great book for tanabata preparation, as each sheep developed their own skills, from riding a bike to playing ball, and bonus points since every skill was something my kids could do as well, and of course for letting my kids practice their rhyming and counting skills!

The stars in this hardcover book are glow-in-the-dark which seem like a gimmick but work pretty well here. Great book for tanabata or just for kids to sleep.

Both kids really wanted to see sheep after a week of this book so we took a trip to a tourist farm. The sheep in real life are not as cuddly as in Sarah Dillard's illustrations. Poor Domba was quite scared!