Today’s reading brings back some old friends. In Oliver Jeffers’s Where to Hide a Star, the boy plays hide-and-seek with his friends the star and the penguin, until one day the star cannot be found. The boy calls on the Martian, and together they fly to the North Pole on a rescue mission. What he finds there teaches him something new about friendship: the things we love most are sometimes meant to be shared.

The book was published in October 2024, twenty years after Jeffers’s first picture book, How to Catch a Star (2004). It reunites characters from his earlier stories: the star from How to Catch a Star, the penguin from Lost and Found, and the Martian from The Way Back Home. At 48 pages, it is longer than most picture books, which gives the story room to breathe. Jeffers has said that How to Catch a Star began with a memory of looking up at the stars from a jetty in Sydney. He was born in Australia, grew up in Northern Ireland, and now lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Watch how Jeffers draws his boy: a round head, two dots for eyes, a single line for a nose, a striped shirt, and two thin blue legs. With almost nothing, he shows worry, hope, and relief. Notice too how lonely the empty white pages feel when the star is missing.

I shaped this episode around a “Sharing” arc: playing together, losing a friend, searching hard, and discovering that friendship can grow bigger than two.

Before recording, I made my index card as a tribute to the boy and his star. The boy’s round head is cut from my yellow-and-orange gelli-printed paper, his body is mottled pink, and he stands on two small blue legs, a nod to Jeffers’s own drawings. One long blue arm curls around him and reaches toward an orange star. They stand inside a red border with black dots, in my handmade red-and-black frame.

Watch the full episode, and then read it again together. Ask your child: who else might want a star for a friend?

Today’s reading is a quiet classic about friendship. In Oliver Jeffers’s Lost and Found, a boy opens his door to find a penguin. The penguin looks sad, and the boy is sure it must be lost, so he does what any kind child would do: he tries to take it home. Along the way, he learns that helping someone means understanding what they actually need.

The book was published in 2005, won the Nestlé Smarties Book Prize Gold Award, and was the Blue Peter Book of the Year. It was also shortlisted for the Kate Greenaway Medal. It was Jeffers’s second picture book; in his first three books, readers follow an unnamed boy, a sort of everyboy, as he returns a penguin to the South Pole or tries to catch a star. Jeffers was born in Australia, grew up in Northern Ireland, and now lives in Brooklyn, New York.

The story also became a much-loved film. Studio AKA’s Philip Hunt adapted and directed a 24-minute animated version in 2008, with music by Max Richter, and Jim Broadbent narrates it. It won the BAFTA for children’s animation at the 2009 British Academy Children’s Awards.

Watch how Jeffers uses space. The boy and the penguin are often tiny figures on big, open pages, which makes the sea feel enormous and their friendship feel precious. Notice, too, how simply he draws faces, and how much feeling still comes through.

I shaped this episode around a “Listening” arc: noticing that someone is sad, trying hard to help, and discovering that the best help begins with understanding.

Before recording, I made my index card as a tribute to the boy and his penguin. I cut the penguin from gray, wood-grain-textured paper, with a white belly and orange feet. The boy has a round yellow head from my gelli-printed paper and a mottled pink body, and he reaches one long arm toward his new friend. They stand inside a red border with black dots, in my handmade red-and-black frame.

Watch the full episode, and then read it again together. Ask your child: was the penguin really lost?