Night and Space Story Time

My original ideas was to have a story time on eclipses to complement the event of the eclipse on August 21st. However, I couldn't find any books on eclipses so I picked books on night time and space instead.
The first book that I read was Touch the Brightest Star by Christie Matheson. The children and I loved this book! This is a fun interactive book where, "Magic happens every night. First wave good-bye to the sun's bright light." Throughout the book, we wave, press, blow, pat, tap, make a wish, and count to three. Our actions produce fireflies, stars, a shooting star, and constellations. This is also a good counting book. The children and I counted fireflies, stars, and owls.
The second book that I read was Night Animals by Gianna Marino. This was a big hit as well! This book is a charming story about the following night animals: a skunk, a possum, a wolf, and a bear. A bat asks them "What are you so scared of?" and they reply, "We're scared of night animals!". Then the bat replies, "But you ARE night animals." At the end of the story, a camper shines a flashlight on them and they quickly run away! The children and I had fun guessing and identifying the night animals.
My last book, Sheep Blast Off! by Nancy Shaw was not as big of a hit as I had hoped it would be. Perhaps the children had not completely "waggled their wiggles" out, but they seemed to be losing interest. This is a delightful and entertaining story about sheep who happen to stumble upon a spaceship. The sheep take a wacky and wild ride into space and as "They tinker with the main controls. The rocket lurches, swoops, and rolls". Green alien sheep take over control of the spaceship and cause the other sheep to instantly go into a deep slumber. After the aliens put the sleeping sheep safely beneath a tree on Earth, the spaceship takes off again!
The following books are books that I found on the topics of space and/or night, but decided not to use them in my story time. However, these books are very good books on the topics.

Our Stars by Anne Rockwell is a good and entertaining nonfiction introduction to the following concepts: the stars, the sun, constellations, the solar system, the moon, and meteors.

Moonbear's Sunrise by Frank Asch is the delightful story of a bear who loves to watch the moonrise, but is so sleepy he keeps missing the sunrise. Alarm clocks don't wake him up and neither does his friend, Little Bird, even though he pecks Bear on the nose. Finally, Little Bird convinces Bear to go to bed early and he wakes up in time to see the sunrise.

The Sun Is My Favorite Star, also by Frank Asch, is the story of a little boy who tells us how much he loves the sun. He loves the sunrise, how high in the sky the sun is at noon, a rainbow when the sun shines after the rain, and the sunset.

Life on Mars by Jon Agee tells the story of a young astronaut who has come to Mars to find life. He even brings a box of chocolate cupcakes to give to whomever he finds on Mars! He finds a flower on Mars, but no other signs of life. Then why is the box of chocolate cupcakes empty?

Kitten's First Full Moon by Kevin Henkes is a classic story about a kitten who mistakes the full moon for a bowl of milk! Kitten tries to get the bowl of milk by leaping in the air, running after it, climbing a tree, and diving into a pond to get the big bowl of milk! Poor kitten! Will she ever get her milk?

Good Night! Good Night! by Carin Berger tells the story of three little bunnies who refuse to go to sleep! Will good night dances, and monkey kisses help them go to bed?