Children's books about camping, stargazing and constellations

🏕 🔭 🌌

I originally published this post on July 6, 2021. I’ve edited, updated, and added to it significantly here.

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Mini issue! Camping + stargazing and constellations

‘Tis the season, is it not? I’m not a huge camper — I enjoy it when I’m in the midst of it but the monumental amount of work before and after always puts a bit of a damper on things for me (unless it’s just me and my husband, in which case it feels as if all we need is a tent, a can opener, and some bug spray and we’re set, which is a kind of freedom I did not fully understand until we became parents). Still, the effort is worth it — especially to see how much fun my kids have — so I’m trying to be a better sport about it in general. Maybe this booklist is actually for me 🤷🏻‍♀️

We’ve gone through several hardcore phases of obsession with space, and if that’s where you’re at (or trying to get), I have a whole mini issue on books about space, astronomy, the planets, etc:

Children's books about space🪐

For our purposes here I’ll focus more specifically on stargazing and constellations — we actually prefer to stargaze in the winter when it’s dark by 4:30pm, but if you’re camping or outside at night in the summer, the chances of you looking up are high, right? So here we go.

If I’ve reviewed any of these, I’ve linked to those here.

Camping

• Be Prepared by Vera Brosgol (a graphic novel for older readers or read-aloud)

• Camp Tiger by Susan Choi

• Maisy Goes Camping by Lucy Cousins (for babies and toddlers)

• A Camping Spree with Mr. Magee by Chris Van Dusen (the second of three Mr. McGee titles)

• Penny & Jelly: Slumber Under the Stars by Maria Gianferrari

• Bailey Goes Camping by Kevin Henkes (actually about camping out in the living room, but it’s a sweet story)

• Alvin Ho: Allergic to Camping, Hiking, and Other Natural Disasters by Lenore Look (for older readers or read-aloud)

• The Camping Trip by Jennifer K. Mann

• When We go Camping by Margaret Ruurs

• The Lost Lake by Allen Say

• Stella and Roy Go Camping by Ashley Wolff

Stargazing & other nighttime adventures

• What Stars Are Made Of by Sarah Allen (middle-grade chapter book)

• The Big Dipper by Franklyn M. Branley (nonfiction science)

• The Sky Is Full of Stars by Franklyn M. Branley (nonfiction science)

• The Story of The Milky Way: A Cherokee Tale by Joseph Bruchac and Gayle Ross

• The Night Walk by Marie Dorleans

• Keepers of the Night: Native American Stories and Nocturnal Activities for Children by Michael J. Caduto and Joseph Bruchac

• Comets, Stars, the Moon, and Mars: Space Poems and Paintings by Douglas Florian (poetry)

• Star Stories: Constellation Tales From Around the World by Anita Ganeri

• Stargazers by Gail Gibbons (nonfiction science)

• Once Upon a Starry Night: A Book of Constellations by Jacqueline Mitton

• Meteor! by Patricia Polacco

• Our Stars by Anne Rockwell (nonfiction science for the youngest kids)

• A Full Moon is Rising by Marilyn Singer (poetry)

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Micro review: Toasting Marshmallows: Camping Poems by Kristine George (2001)

This lovely book is, simply and perfectly, a journey into the heart of a camping trip. Including all the quiet thrills (hearing a noise outside the tent at night), cozy rituals (getting dressed inside your sleeping bag because it’s cold), and small wonders (toasting marshmallows, of course), the poems here are rich with sensory detail, and along with Kiesler’s atmospheric illustrations, transport the reader to the great outdoors in a way that’s somehow both soothing and full of adventure.

This would be a great one to throw in with your 10,000 pounds of stuff to actually take camping, but it’s also a great read if camping’s not your thing, or, just now right now.

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Micro review: You Make the World by Mượn Thị Văn, illustrated by Phùng Nguyên Quang and Huỳnh Kim Liên (2025)

I received a copy of this book from Scholastic Inc. — all opinions are my own

From the opening image, where a young boy sits with his father around a campfire, through each increasingly transcendent image in this gorgeous book (created with Photoshop and pencil on paper), the message is repeated that many things make the world:

The sun makes the world hum.
The clouds make the world blue.
The wind makes the world wild.
The rain makes the world new.

But the additional element worth focusing on here? The other thing that makes the world? YOU.

Less a linear narrative and more a poetic ode to the energy of nature — including our human actions, emotions, and intentions — this unique title is somehow a love song to the wild outdoors as well as the intensity and beauty of being a person, one-of-a-kind, in this lovely, difficult, one-of-a-kind world.

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Happy camping, stargazing, and nighttime summer fun!

Read good books and take good care 😘
Sarah