A Firefly Carries the Little Star Home

Where does a lost star belong?

A Map of the Thirty Nights

This book holds thirty nights, one story for each night of a month. Every story begins or ends at the little house at the edge of the garden. Grandma Ada lives there with June, and every night Grandma Ada leaves a lamp on in the window. Pim the firefly lives under the eaves. Here is the map of the whole journey, one line for each night, so you can find your place again.

Day 1. A little star called Nell falls into the garden, and Pim finds her glowing in the mint.

Day 2. Pim makes Nell a warm bed in a teacup, right beside the lamp in the window.

Day 3. The old owl says Nell fell because she was naughty, and the Night Wind offers to help.

Day 4. The Night Wind carries Pim and Nell over a hot desert, where a fox talks about campfires.

Day 5. In a snowy forest, a hare says the stars are holes in a great dark blanket.

Day 6. On an island beach, the sea turtles try to count every star in the sky.

Day 7. A shepherd in the mountain meadows says the moon lights its own lamp.

Day 8. In the rice fields, the frogs say the stars live down in the water.

Day 9. On the rooftops of a busy town, a boy says the stars are winking at him.

Day 10. On a wide grassland, a zebra says everyone in the world sees the same stars.

Day 11. In a rainforest, the bats say that fireflies are broken stars, and Pim wonders.

Day 12. Back at the little house, Nell misses home, and June says, "Let's find out what is true."

Day 13. On a hilltop, a girl with a telescope shows them where the moon gets its light.

Day 14. On a rocky coast at dawn, Pim and Nell learn that the stars stay all day.

Day 15. Above a fishing harbor, the moving air makes every star shiver and twinkle.

Day 16. In a river meadow, Pim finds out how a firefly makes its own light.

Day 17. By a still lake, the friends watch the whole sky turn slowly through the night.

Day 18. In a night bakery, Pim and Nell learn that the stars are giant suns very far away.

Day 19. On the far north ice, they find the one star that stays nearly still.

Day 20. On the far south ice, the penguins show them a sky full of different stars.

Day 21. On a high dry plain, the stars shine blue-white, yellow, orange and red.

Day 22. In the orchard hills, Pim and Nell learn that the night sky changes with the seasons.

Day 23. On a lake island, they watch shooting stars and learn what those quick lights really are.

Day 24. At a mountain hut, they learn how long starlight travels before it reaches us.

Day 25. At the little house, Nell remembers the shape of her home in the sky.

Day 26. Pim and Nell fly away from the bright lamps of a town to find the faint stars.

Day 27. Clouds cover the hills, and the friends learn how to wait for a clear sky.

Day 28. The Night Wind takes Pim and Nell to say goodbye to all their friends.

Day 29. The Night Wind lifts Nell up, up, up to her own place in the sky.

Day 30. A new light shines above the little house, and the lamp in the window stays on.

The first nights are full of old sayings about the stars, the moon and the night. People and animals tell them, and Pim listens to every one. Later, Pim and Nell look more closely, and they find out what is known about the sky. One small thing follows every story to its end. It is a lamp left on in a window. It means someone is waiting for you, and you can find your way home.

You can read one night at a time, from the first to the last. You can also open the map, choose a place, and fly there tonight. Some nights end with a few small things to watch for before you fall asleep. Look for them out of your own window, or in your own room. Then close your eyes. Slow wings, soft light. The lamp is on tonight.

Part 1: A Star Comes Down to the Little House

At the edge of a garden stands a little house with a lamp in its window. One night something small and bright comes down among the mint leaves. Here a firefly finds a new friend, makes her a bed, and hears what the old ones say about falling stars.

Day 1: A little star falls into the garden.

"Grandma, look, something is shining down by the gate!" June pressed her nose to the cold glass of the window. Grandma Ada set down her cup of warm milk and came over to see. Out in the dark garden, a small light glowed low in the grass. It did not blink, and it did not fly away.

Up under the eaves of the little house, Pim woke from his evening nap. His tail began to glow soft and yellow. Blink, blink, blink went his light in the dark. "That is not a firefly," Pim said to himself, "because I know every firefly in this garden." He dropped from the eaves and zoomed down toward the gate, humming. "Slow wings, soft light. The lamp is on tonight."

A Glow in the Mint

The light was in the mint patch, under the biggest leaf. Pim landed on a stem and peeked underneath. There sat a tiny star, small enough to sit in a thimble. Her five points were bent a little, and her light was pale and shaky. "Hello there," said Pim in his kindest voice. "Are you hurt?"

"I fell," said the star with a small sniff. "I was up there in my place, and then I was falling. Now I am down here in the leaves." She tipped her head back and looked up at the sky. So many stars were shining up there together. "I cannot tell which place is mine," she said. "Where is my place? Where is my place?"

"My name is Pim, and I live under the eaves of that little house," said Pim. "What is your name?" "My name is Nell," said the star. Pim spun twice in the air, quick and silly, just to make her smile. "Well, Nell," he said, "you landed in the mint, and the mint is a very good place to land. It smells nice, and the slugs never come here at night."

Nell laughed a small and shaky laugh, and then she looked at the sky again. "Where is my place?" she asked for the third time. Pim did not know the answer, so he looked up with her. None of the stars called down to her. "We will find it together," Pim said at last. "I do not know how yet, but we will find it."

June at the Gate

The back door of the little house creaked open. June came running down the path in her slippers. Grandma Ada came after her, slower, with a shawl around her shoulders. Behind them, the lamp shone in the window, the way it did every night. Someone might be out late, Grandma Ada liked to say, and a lamp in the window shows them the way home.

June knelt down by the mint, and her eyes went very wide. "Grandma," she whispered, "it is a star, a real little star." Grandma Ada bent down slowly, with one hand pressed to her back. Pim flew up and gave her three quick blinks to say hello, and Grandma Ada smiled at him.

"My mother used to say something about this," Grandma Ada said softly. "She used to say that a falling star means a star is lost. Now it needs some help to get back up." June turned to Nell with a worried face. "Is that true?" she asked. "Are you lost?" Nell gave a very small nod, and her bent points trembled. "Then we will help you," said June at once. Grandma Ada did not say yes or no, and she only pulled her shawl a little closer.

"Can stars really get lost?" Pim asked Nell, very quietly, so that only she could hear him. "Well, I did," said Nell, "so I suppose they can." Pim had never heard of a lost star before tonight. But he had heard of lost kittens, and lost mittens, and once a lost duckling down by the pond. Somebody had always helped them find the way home, and somebody had always kept a light on.

The First Night Watch

The night air was getting colder now, and Nell shivered in the mint until her light went thin. Pim saw it and flew close to sit beside her on the big leaf. He made his own glow a little bigger and a little warmer. "Stay close to me," he said, "and my light can keep your light company. That is what Grandma Ada's lamp does for us. It stays on, so nobody out in the dark feels alone."

June wanted to carry Nell inside. Grandma Ada shook her head very gently. "Not tonight, my dear, because she is tired, and the mint is soft. Let Pim watch over her until morning." June gave a slow nod. "I will look out of my window," she said, "and I will look until I fall asleep." She kissed her fingers and touched them very lightly to the biggest mint leaf.

Then June and Grandma Ada walked back up the path together. The door of the little house closed with a soft click behind them. The lamp stayed on in the window, yellow and steady. "Do you see that lamp?" Pim asked Nell. "It stays on all night long, and it means somebody is waiting. The lamp is on. The door is near. And all is well here."

Nell leaned her bent points against Pim's wing, and her light grew a little steadier. "Will you stay with me?" she asked in a small voice. "All night long," said Pim, "and tomorrow I will make you a proper bed. It will be a warm one, up on the windowsill by the lamp. I promise." Nell gave a tiny star yawn and closed her eyes. "A warm bed by the lamp," she murmured. "That sounds very nice."

So Pim stayed in the mint, humming softly. "Slow wings, soft light. The lamp is on tonight." The garden grew quiet around them, and the crickets sang slower and slower until they stopped. Pim kept his glow on, soft and low, beside the little star. In the window of the little house, the lamp was on. Under the mint leaf, Nell was fast asleep. And Pim, very slowly, closed his eyes too.