Joni and the Fallen Star

Helping Children Learn Teamwork

by Cindy Jett Pilon, MSW
illustrated by John Hazard

Joni loves to stargaze. She looks up into the night sky and searches for groups of stars that make pictures in the sky. She especially likes the twinkling stars of her favorite constellation, the Big Dipper. Then one night, after going to bed, she hears a tapping on her window and finds a little star twinkling at her. “I am sorry to bother you,” says the little star, “but I have fallen out of the sky and really need to get home.”

His name is Alkaid and he had been the star at the tip of the Big Dipper’s handle. After Joni tries to help him without success, she gets assistance from her classmates, each of whom contributes his or her special talents. Can the team of children return “Al” to his home in the heavens?

Joni and the Fallen Star is an engaging, charming story that teaches kids the value of good teamwork.

Cindy Jett Pilon, MSW, has a psychotherapy practice in Washington, DC. She has a Master’s of Social Work from the Catholic University of America. She lives in Reston, Virginia, with her husband and their four-year-old daughter.

John Hazard is an animator for the Nickelodeon network and its Web site and draws the newspaper strip Schmooze or Lose. A graduate of the Pratt Institute, he lives in Manhattan.

A Small Horizons "Let's Talk" Release
7x8, 48 pages, 26 Color Illustrations
LC #2010908355 world rights
ISBN-13: 978-0-88282-353-9 (pb), $9.95