Fifty-seven navigational stars (plus a special star) are given a special status in the field of celestial navigation. Of the approximately 6,000 stars visible to the naked eye, the navigational stars are among the brightest. Many of them were named by the Babylonians, Greeks, Romans, and Arabs.

The star Polaris, often called the "North Star", is the fifty-eighth star and treated specially due to its proximity to the north celestial pole. Note that I said "proximity" because the North Star isn't exactly pointing to the pole. When navigating in the Northern Hemisphere, special techniques can be used with Polaris to determine latitude or gyrocompass error.

In addition to special tables, star charts provide an aid to the navigator in identifying the navigational stars, showing constellations, relative positions, and brightness. Today's smartphones have interactive star charts that you can point and click with to help you find what's what in the night sky from the moon and stars to the planets, too.

Finally, stars twinkle because of the atmosphere has different temperature areas all around and at different altitudes. This bends the path of light in strange ways just like hot desert sand heats the air near it and creates mirages.

Greenfly, your topic isn't really that far off topic because almost all little girls that I know of have memorized this little song. Little boys, too. I memorized it about 60 years ago when I was about this high.