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A Firefly Carries the Little Star Home

by Anneliese Maas

Trinity Books · November 2, 2026

A month of bedtimes with a firefly, a lost star and the whole night sky

Reading time: About 2 h 20 min (at 230 words a minute)

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Cover of A Firefly Carries the Little Star Home

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Length208 pages

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Details

AuthorGermany Anneliese Maas
CategoryBedtime stories / Animal protagonists / Read-aloud short stories / Short stories for reading aloud
Language of the bookEnglish
PublishedNovember 2, 2026
Length208 pages
Product numberTB-W0010-EN
Reading timeAbout 2 h 20 min (at 230 words a minute)
Print-ready PDFA5 · interior PDF and cover PDF (with bleed: two versions, 3 mm and 3.175 mm, can be downloaded.) · 208 pages

Categories of this book

CategoriesStoriesBedtime stories

CategoriesStoriesAnimal protagonists

CategoriesFor childrenRead-aloud short stories

CategoriesWords and readingShort stories for reading aloud

About this book

"The lamp is on. The door is near. And all is well here." A little star called Nell falls into the garden of a little house, and Pim the firefly finds her glowing in the mint. Night after night, the Night Wind carries the two friends to deserts, snowy forests, island beaches, rice fields and the far ice, where everyone has a saying about the stars. Thirty short bedtime stories, one for every night of a month, follow Pim and Nell as they listen, look more closely, and bring Nell home at last.

Thirty nights, one lost star, and a lamp that is always left on in the window.

One evening June sees a glow by the gate. In the mint patch, Pim the firefly finds a tiny star with bent points and a shaky light. Her name is Nell, and she cannot tell which place in the sky is hers. Pim makes her a bed in a teacup beside Grandma Ada's lamp, and promises that they will find her place together.

From the fourth night on, the Night Wind carries Pim and Nell wherever night has fallen. A fox talks about campfires, a hare about a dark blanket full of holes, and the sea turtles try to count every star. Later, a girl with a telescope, a fisherman, a baker and the penguins show them what is known about the moon, the stars and fireflies, and each old saying is set right gently.

Every story is about seven or eight minutes long when read aloud. Two lines come back every night, so children soon say them along with you. Each night grows slower and quieter toward its end, and every journey comes home to the little house before morning.

Night by night, your child will

  • fall asleep with a story that ends safely at home every time
  • join in with the two lines that come back every night
  • visit thirty different places where it is night
  • hear old sayings about the stars and the moon, then find out what is known
  • notice the moon, the stars and twinkling lights from their own window
  • feel that someone is always waiting, with a lamp left on

Contents

  • A Firefly Carries the Little Star Home
  • A Map of the Thirty Nights
  • Part 1: A Star Comes Down to the Little House
  • Day 1: A little star falls into the garden.
    1. A Glow in the Mint
    2. June at the Gate
    3. The First Night Watch
  • Day 2: Pim makes a warm bed for the star.
    1. The Teacup Bed
    2. Soft Things from the Garden
    3. Grandma Ada and the Daytime Stars
    4. The Daytime Nap
    5. Lights for the Windowsill
  • Day 3: The old owl calls the star naughty.
    1. A Branch in the Old Oak
    2. A Voice in the Leaves
More
  • Day 4: The Night Wind carries them over the sand.
    1. Up and Away from the Sill
    2. The Fox on the Dune
    3. Campfires Far Away
    4. Sights for a Sandy Night
  • Day 5: Snow falls softly on the sleeping forest.
    1. Sand on the Snow
    2. A Forest Fast Asleep
    3. The Hare in Her Hollow
    4. A Blanket Full of Holes
    5. Warm in the Hollow
    6. The Window Through the Snow
  • Day 6: The sea turtles try to count the stars.
    1. The Warm Beach
    2. Counting on the Sand
    3. Lights to Count by the Window
  • Part 2: What Everyone Says About the Night
  • Day 7: A shepherd says the moon lights its own lamp.
    1. The Pink Shell in the Thistledown
    2. Up the Mountain Air
    3. The Shepherd on the Bench
    4. A Lamp of Its Own
    5. Counting Sheep by Moonlight
    6. Stars in the Trough
    7. Down the Mountain Home
  • Day 8: Every pool in the rice fields holds a sky.
    1. Steps of Water on the Hills
    2. The Frog Chorus
    3. Nell's Light in the Water
    4. Skies to Find in the Water
  • Day 9: The stars wink at a boy on the roof.
    1. Chimneys and Washing Lines
    2. The Same Stars Far Away
  • Day 10: Everyone in the world sees the same stars, says the zebra.
    1. The Wide Grass Country
    2. Stripes in the Moonlight
    3. One Sky for Everyone
    4. A Seed on Pim's Leg
    5. Signs to Spot Before Sleep
  • Day 11: The bats say that fireflies are broken stars.
    1. The Dripping Leaves
    2. The Fig Tree Bats
    3. The Story of the Broken Star
    4. A Question in the Fig Tree
    5. Rain Under a Leaf
    6. A Green Leaf for the Ride Home
  • Day 12: Pim and Nell rest at the little house again.
    1. The Leaf on the Windowsill
    2. A Wish at the Window
    3. Small Lights for a Homesick Night
  • Part 3: Looking a Little Closer
  • Day 13: A girl with a telescope looks at the moon.
    1. The Telescope on the Hilltop
    2. A Shepherd's Saying Remembered
    3. A Ball in Pim's Light
    4. Sunlight on the Moon
    5. A Silver Path Home
  • Day 14: The stars are still there in the morning.
    1. The Rocky Coast Before Dawn
    2. Watching the Stars Fade
    3. Pim's Glow in the Sunshine
    4. Things Hidden in the Light
  • Day 15: The air above the harbor is never still.
    1. Boats in the Night Harbor
    2. The Rooftop Boy's Saying
    3. Moving Air up High
    4. Wobbly Air Above the Lantern
    5. Stars Low Over the Water
    6. A Question for Pim
    7. Lanterns Leaving the Harbor
    8. One Lamp in the Little Window
  • Day 16: Pim finds out how he makes his own light.
    1. The River Meadow Full of Fireflies
    2. Flashing Patterns in the Grass
    3. Little Lights in the Summer Dark
  • Day 17: The whole sky turns slowly through the night.
    1. A Tent by the Still Lake
    2. The Star Above the Pine
    3. A Spin on the Shore
    4. The Sun Across the Sky
    5. Warm Bread on the Wind
    6. The Lamp Beneath the Turning Sky
  • Day 18: The stars are giant suns very far away.
    1. The Baker by the Brick Oven
    2. Faraway Suns for Your Window
  • Part 4: What the Sky Shows Us
  • Day 19: One star in the north stays nearly still.
    1. The Fox on the Far North Ice
    2. A Mark on the Ice Ridge
    3. Sil's Lamp in the North
    4. The Lamp Waiting Below the North Star
  • Day 20: The penguins see a different sky in the south.
    1. The Longest Ride South
    2. A Crowd of Penguins
    3. Strange Stars Overhead
    4. The Zebra's Saying Set Right
    5. Tup's Gift of a Feather
    6. Stars From Both Halves of the World
  • Day 21: The stars wear many colors on a dark night.
    1. The Dry Plain Sky
    2. The Grandfather's Embers
    3. The Red Wool Thread
  • Day 22: The night sky changes with the seasons.
    1. The Bow on the Teacup
    2. Apple Trees in the Dark
    3. Hollis and the Round Walk
    4. A Year Around the Sun
    5. Stars for an Autumn Window
  • Day 23: A shooting star is a tiny speck of dust.
    1. Apple Slices on the Sill
    2. The Island Tent
    3. A Heron in the Reeds
    4. Streaks over the Water
    5. Dust from Space
    6. Mira's Wish
    7. The White Pebble
  • Day 24: Starlight travels a very long way to us.
    1. The Pebble by the Seeds
    2. A Notebook Full of Dots
    3. Light from Very Far Away
    4. Old Light for Your Window
  • Part 5: The Long Way Home
  • Day 25: Nell remembers the shape of her home.
    1. The Page of Dots
    2. The Kite over the Roof
  • Day 26: Bright lights hide the faint little stars.
    1. June's Kite Drawing
    2. The Orange Glow of the Town
    3. Otto and the Broom
    4. The Dark Field Beyond the Lamps
    5. Faint Stars for Your Window
  • Day 27: The clouds cover the sky above the hills.
    1. Gray Clouds over the Garden
    2. The Badger's Stone Wall
    3. A Window in the Clouds
  • Day 28: Pim and Nell say goodbye to their friends.
    1. A Night for Farewells
    2. The Fox on the Warm Dune
    3. The Hare in the Snowy Hollow
    4. Turtle Tracks on the Moonlit Sand
    5. Many Friends and the Old Owl
    6. Goodbye Lights for Your Window
  • Day 29: The Night Wind lifts Nell up to her place.
    1. The Owl on the Oak Branch
    2. Goodbye at the Garden Gate
    3. The Long Climb Up
    4. A Light in the Kite's Tail
  • Day 30: A new light shines above the little house.
    1. The Empty Teacup
    2. Pim's Quiet Morning
    3. One Light Up High
    4. The Lamp That Stays On
    5. Last Lights for Your Window
  • A Short Timeline
  • A Guide for Families and Reading Groups
  • The People in This Book
  • Colophon

From the publisher

A month of bedtimes with a firefly, a lost star and the whole night sky

Each story is a complete little journey. It starts with a child's question or a voice in the dark, flies somewhere new, and comes back to the windowsill where Nell sleeps in her teacup. The rhythm is lively in the middle and slow at the end, which makes the last minutes of the day easy.

The book has a gentle plan. In the first twelve nights, people and animals share their old sayings about the sky, and Pim simply listens. In the later nights, each saying is looked at again, and a simple, true fact about the moon, the stars or fireflies takes its place.

Small things travel from one night to the next: a grass seed, a striped pebble, a red scarf, a penguin feather. Children enjoy spotting them on the windowsill and remembering where each one came from.

At the back you will find a short timeline of the journey, a guide with questions and things to do together, and a list of everyone Pim and Nell meet along the way.

What we like

  • Thirty short stories, one for each night of a month
  • Two repeated lines that children learn by heart
  • Simple, true facts about the sky, told kindly inside the story
  • Some nights end with three little things to watch for from the window

Recommended for

  • Families looking for a calm story for every night of the month
  • Children who ask questions about the stars and the moon
  • Grown-ups who like to read aloud and share a few quiet words before sleep

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You can buy any language edition on this page: choose it under “Language of the book” in the buy box above. Each language also has its own page.

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