NORTHSTAR PRIME
Elin in a plum cardigan watches a tiny cream-and-charcoal bookmark moth with glowing antenna tips at the empty end of a shelf of colorful books.

Little Light Library · Book 50 of 50

The Little Light at the End of the Shelf

At the end of a long shelf, Elin finds a place where a new story can begin.

Read together, ages 4-8

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Story text100%
Find your place
Contents
  1. The end of the row
  2. A space for something
  3. Choosing a beginning
  4. The cream book
  5. Yesterday's sound
  6. One leaf
  7. The first words
  8. A place to turn
  9. Another page
  10. A narrow marker
  11. On the shelf
  12. A light left waiting

01 / 12

The end of the row

Elin kneels beside the low bookshelf and watches tiny cream-and-charcoal MOTE glow at the empty end of a row of books.

Elin followed the books along the low shelf.

Red, blue, green, gold.

At the far end was a little space.

Something warm shone there.

A bookmark moth sat with its wings folded.

'Hello, MOTE,' Elin said.

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02 / 12

A space for something

Elin points toward the space beside MOTE, whose patterned dark wings and two warm antenna lights stand out against the wood.

'What belongs here?' she asked.

MOTE shifted its small patterned wings.

'What would you put here?'

Elin looked along the row again.

There were more stories than she could remember all at once.

The little space was still empty.

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03 / 12

Choosing a beginning

Sitting on a blue floor cushion with her hands in her lap, Elin thinks while MOTE waits on the nearby shelf.

She thought about a sea, a garden, and a very small door.

All of them could begin a story.

None of them felt like her beginning yet.

MOTE waited on the wood.

It was good at waiting.

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04 / 12

The cream book

Elin opens a small cream notebook to its blank pages on the wooden table, with MOTE settled beside one corner.

Elin fetched a little cream notebook.

Its pages had no story in them.

She opened it on the table.

MOTE settled beside one corner.

'There is a great deal of room in here,' Elin said.

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05 / 12

Yesterday's sound

Elin pauses above the blank notebook and looks toward the rain-speckled window while MOTE waits on the table.

Outside, rain tapped against the window.

Elin remembered yesterday's puddle.

She had stepped over it, then gone back to look.

A small leaf had been turning in the middle.

She had stayed to watch.

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06 / 12

One leaf

With a brown pencil, Elin draws a simple leaf inside a ring of water on the notebook's first page.

She drew a leaf on the first page.

Then a ring of water around it.

The leaf on the paper did not move.

Elin gave it a curved line.

Now the picture seemed ready to turn.

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07 / 12

The first words

A few faint handwritten lines appear beneath the leaf drawing as Elin bends over the cream notebook and MOTE listens.

She wrote about stopping on the way home.

The sentence was longer than she expected.

Elin read it aloud.

MOTE listened.

Halfway through, she changed a word.

The sentence sounded more like the moment she remembered.

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08 / 12

A place to turn

Elin pauses with the pencil over her leaf drawing and short lines of writing, looking thoughtfully at the page.

'What happened next?' MOTE asked.

Elin looked at the drawing.

She had waited until the leaf reached the edge.

Then she had gone home.

It was a small ending, but it was the one that happened.

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09 / 12

Another page

Elin turns to a fresh blank page while her brown pencil rests beside the notebook and MOTE stands nearby.

She turned the page.

Tomorrow's walk was not on it yet.

Elin rested the pencil beside the book.

She did not have to know the next story tonight.

The blank page could keep its room.

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10 / 12

A narrow marker

Elin holds one end of a narrow blue paper strip while MOTE supports the other with tiny insect feet above the open notebook.

She found a narrow strip of blue paper.

MOTE carried one end while Elin held the other.

Together they laid it between the pages.

The moth had helped her keep a place.

The story itself was Elin's.

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11 / 12

On the shelf

Elin places the closed cream notebook beside a blue book on the shelf, its blue paper marker showing at the top.

Elin closed the notebook.

She slipped it into the little space at the end of the shelf.

Its cream cover leaned against a blue book.

The blue marker showed at the top.

MOTE settled on the wood beside it.

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12 / 12

A light left waiting

From the doorway, Elin looks back at MOTE's warm antenna lights beside the upright cream notebook and the quiet row of books.

The rain softened.

Elin turned the lamp low and went toward the door.

At the end of the shelf, MOTE's little light remained.

There were stories to return to.

There was room to begin again.

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The end. Or a beginning.

Talk together

  1. What can MOTE help with, and what does Elin choose herself?
  2. Why does Elin begin with the sound of rain?
  3. What beginning would you put on the empty end of a shelf?

A long shelf can hold many finished stories and still leave room for another beginning. MOTE offers Elin company and questions; the choice of what to tell remains hers.

This is an original NorthStar Prime story in the VORATH Little Light Library. Its words, characters, setting and illustrations were developed for this volume.