Dear Parent:

Congratulations! Your child is taking the first steps on an exciting journey. The destination? Independent reading!

STEP INTO READING® will help your child get there. The program offers five steps to reading success. Each step includes fun stories and colorful art. There are also Step into Reading Sticker Books, Step into Reading Math Readers, Step into Reading Write-in Readers, Step into Reading Phonics Readers, and Step into Reading Phonics First Steps! Boxed Sets—a complete literacy program with something for every child.

Learning to Read, Step by Step!

Ready to Read Preschool–Kindergarten

• big type and easy words • rhyme and rhythm • picture clues

For children who know the alphabet and are eager to begin reading.

Reading with Help Preschool-Grade 1

• basic vocabulary • short sentences • simple stories

For children who recognize familiar words and sound out new words with help.

Reading on Your Own Grades 1–3

• engaging characters • easy-to-follow plots • popular topics

For children who are ready to read on their own.

Reading Paragraphs Grades 2–3

• challenging vocabulary • short paragraphs • exciting stories

For newly independent readers who read simple sentences with confidence.

Ready for Chapters Grades 2–4

• chapters • longer paragraphs • full-color art

For children who want to take the plunge into chapter books but still like colorful pictures.

STEP INTO READING® is designed to give every child a successful reading experience. The grade levels are only guides. Children can progress through the steps at their own speed, developing confidence in their reading, no matter what their grade.

Remember, a lifetime love of reading starts with a single step!

For Anne, my very dear friend

who is our brightest and most

spirited star

—J.P.

About the Author

Margaret Wise Brown liked stars.

As a girl she liked to sleep on the upstairs porch in the summer with her sister and their cat named Ole King Cole. From her bed she could look out over the trees at the stars.

Could it be that on one of those warm summer nights Margaret was thinking about “a star that is shining right straight in your eye”?

Gazing up at the stars and moon put Margaret in a dreamy mood. What a mystery it all was!

Years later, as a grown-up, she still enjoyed looking up at the night sky—and letting her mind wander.

One night she fell asleep at her window. The next morning she awoke and wrote down the words in her head: “Goodnight moon… goodnight stars…” Those words became her best-known book, Goodnight Moon.

As a famous author, she liked to tell her friends that she did not actually write books. She “dreamt” them.

Sometimes, it seems, she really did!

In I Like Stars, Margaret Wise Brown tells about many different kinds of stars: blue stars, green stars, quiet ones, bright ones.

What kinds of stars do you see when you look up at the stars at night?

—Leonard S. Marcus

Leonard S. Marcus is a well-known

biographer and historian, and the

author of Margaret Wise Brown:

Awakened by the Moon.

Text copyright © 1954, renewed 1982 by Random House, Inc.

Illustrations copyright © 1998 by Joan Paley.

Afterword copyright © 1998 Leonard S. Marcus.

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. Published in the United States by Random House Children’s Books, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, and simultaneously in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto. Originally published by Golden Books, an imprint of Random House Children’s Books, a division of Random House, Inc., in 1954. This revised edition originally published by Golden Books in 1998.

www.stepintoreading.com

Educators and librarians, for a variety of teaching tools, visit us at www.randomhouse.com/teachers

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Brown, Margaret Wise, 1910–1952.

I like stars / by Margaret Wise Brown; illustrated by Joan Paley; with an afterword by Leonard S. Marcus.

p. cm. — (Step into reading. A step 1 book)

SUMMARY: A simple poem describing all kinds of stars that appear in the night sky.

1. Stars—Juvenile poetry. 2. Children’s poetry, American.

[1. Stars—Poetry. 2. American poetry.]

I. Paley, Joan, ill. II. Title. III. Series: Step into reading. Step 1 book.

PS3503.R82184I16   2003   811′.52—dc21   2002013763

STEP INTO READING, RANDOM HOUSE, and the Random House colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.

eISBN: 978-0-307-53171-1

v3.0

Table of Contents

Dedication

Title Page

Chapter 1

About the Author

Copyright