''The Tiny Star'' is a 2019 children's picture book by

Mem Fox Merrion Frances "Mem" Fox AM (; born 5 March 1946) is an Australian writer of children's books and an educationalist specialising in literacy. Fox has been semi-retired since 1996, but she still writes and gives seminars. She lives in Adelaide ...

and illustrated by

Freya Blackwood Freya Blackwood (born 1975) is an Australian illustrator and special effects artist. She worked on special effects for The Lord of the Rings film trilogy from 2001 to 2003 and won the Kate Greenaway Medal for British children's book illustration ...

. It is about a

star A star is a luminous spheroid of plasma (physics), plasma held together by Self-gravitation, self-gravity. The List of nearest stars and brown dwarfs, nearest star to Earth is the Sun. Many other stars are visible to the naked eye at night sk ...

falling to Earth, turning into a

baby In common terminology, a baby is the very young offspring of adult human beings, while infant (from the Latin word ''infans'', meaning 'baby' or 'child') is a formal or specialised synonym. The terms may also be used to refer to Juvenile (orga ...

, living a loving fulfilling life, dying, than returning to the heavens as a star.

Development

According to Fox, it took her five years to write.

Publication history

* 2021, US,

Alfred A. Knopf Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. () is an American publishing house that was founded by Blanche Knopf and Alfred A. Knopf Sr. in 1915. Blanche and Alfred traveled abroad regularly and were known for publishing European, Asian, and Latin American writers ...

* 2019, Australia,

Puffin Books Puffin Books is a longstanding children's imprint of the British publishers Penguin Books. Since the 1960s, it has been among the largest publishers of children's books in the UK and much of the English-speaking world. The imprint now belongs to ...

Reception

A reviewer for the ''

Reading Time Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of symbols, often specifically those of a written language, by means of sight or touch. For educators and researchers, reading is a multifaceted process involving such areas as word re ...

'' wrote "''The Tiny Star'' is a valuable, uplifting and poignant story for the young to make sense of, and find comfort in, heartbreaking loss", and recommended it as a best book of the year. ''

Publishers Weekly ''Publishers Weekly'' (''PW'') is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers, and literary agents. Published continuously since 1872, it has carried the tagline, "The International News Magazine of ...

'' called it a "meditation". ''The Tiny Star'' has also been reviewed by ''

Kirkus Reviews ''Kirkus Reviews'' is an American book review magazine founded in 1933 by Virginia Kirkus. The magazine's publisher, Kirkus Media, is headquartered in New York City. ''Kirkus Reviews'' confers the annual Kirkus Prize to authors of fiction, no ...

'', ''

Books+Publishing ''Books+Publishing'' (formerly ''Bookseller+Publisher'' and ''Australian Bookseller & Publisher'') is a news outlet reporting on the Australian book industry. Published as a website with daily newsletters and a print magazine, the outlet produ ...

'', and StoryLinks.

Awards

* 2020 Booksellers' Choice Children's book of the year shortlist * 2020 Australian Book Industry Awards Children's Picture Book of the Year shortlist * 2020

Speech Pathology Australia Book of the Year Awards Speech is the use of the human voice as a medium for language. Spoken language combines vowel and consonant sounds to form units of meaning like words, which belong to a language's lexicon. There are many different intentional speech acts, suc ...

Three to Five Years shortlist * 2020 Australian Indie Book Awards Children's shortlist

References

External links

Library holdings of ''The Tiny Star''

Interview with Fox and Blackwood about the book
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tiny Star, The 2019 children's books Australian picture books Children's books about death Picture books by Mem Fox Puffin Books books