This is a free sample of The Station of Falling Stars, Book 1 of Storybranch’s choose-your-own-adventure-style picture book series for kids 3–8. It includes the first 12 pages, with two real choices and one friendly dead end, plus the full Grown-Up’s Ticket parent guide in the PDF. You read aloud; your child chooses where the story goes.
How to read it together
Read each page aloud. When you reach a star (★), stop and let your child choose. Then turn to the page their choice names. Some choices lead to a dead end that gently sends you back to try again; those are on purpose, and kids love finding them. The one rule from the parent guide: never pick for them. Ask, then wait.
Meet your fellow travelers
Every journey on the Night Train is better with friends. Here's who is riding with you tonight — and how each one sounds when you read them aloud:
Rowan — The hero of every journey — curious, brave, and wearing the orange coat. Rowan's choices belong to YOU.
The Conductor — Keeper of the timetable and the wisdom. Read him slow as syrup, in your deepest, sleepiest rumble.
Tick the Ticket Mouse — Punches the tickets, panics the loudest. Read him fast-fast-FAST, squeaky and tremendously official.
Pip — A fallen star no bigger than a teacup, with hiccups made of sparks. Read him small and shimmery — hic! — with a wobble of wonder.
Maren the Star-Keeper — She watches the whole sky and misses nothing — eventually. Read her soft and mysterious, like someone telling secrets to the stars.
The story: pages 1–12
Page 1
Page 2
Rowan hated bedtime because absolutely nothing exciting ever happened in the dark. But tonight, the valley was empty one second, and the next—poof!—a train appeared out of thin air, a shimmering dragon of green steel, puffing clouds of silver steam.
Suddenly, the sky blinked and a star zipped past Rowan's window and crashed beyond the hills like a dropped spark.
“Tickets! Wait—EMERGENCY! Major star disaster!” squeaked Tick, the ticket taking mouse in a giant officer's cap, who tumbled straight off the train step.
Rowan raced out the door and down to the platform just as the Conductor stepped into the moonlight. “Pay no mind to my panicked little friend—the night is long, but the sky has indeed lost a star,” the Conductor smiled softly. “And I have a feeling you’re just the brave thinker we need to help us put it back.”
The little station’s sign above the train read FALLING STARS in letters that glowed faintly with moonlight.
Rowan and the Conductor followed a trail of twinkling, star-sparks over the hill, and into the dark woods that were lit with a bright yellow light. There, nestled in a crater of glowing moss, sat a tiny star no bigger than a teacup.
“I fell!” the star hiccuped, its light flickering like a candle. “I’m Pip—I was holding my spot in the sky and I sneezed, and - hic- now I can’t remember where I belong!”
Rowan looked up and saw that one patch of the night sky had a dark and empty gap in it, just like a missing tooth. Getting Pip home would take some work. What should they do?
★ How should Rowan find Pip's place in the sky?
Climb to the Star-Keeper's observatory → turn to page 5If you choose the observatory, the great sky map may show exactly where Pip belongs — but the spiral stairs are long, the night is short, and maps only help the ones who read them slowly.
The observatory stairs wound up the hillside like a giant, sleeping snake. Rowan climbed higher and higher; Pip rode in the crook of one arm, hiccuping tiny sparks, while Tick clung tightly to Rowan's earlobe like a terrified thrill-seeker.
At the top, a round brass door swung open with a mysterious creak. “I saw you coming,” whispered Maren, the Star-Keeper. She was tall and quiet, with hair that spun into swirling galaxies of purple and silver, and a long cloak stitched with shimmering constellations.
Behind her, the room glowed with hanging charts, a brass spyglass as big as a whale, and a massive sky map showing every single star in the universe.
“The sky map remembers every star and the spyglass sees where they belong,” Maren whispered. “Which tool do you choose to help find Pip's home?”
★ Which tool should Rowan use first?
Study the great sky map slowly → turn to page 9If you choose the map, tracing Pip's constellation point by point could reveal the exact empty spot — but slow, careful looking is hard when the night is draining away like bathwater.
Rowan grabbed the giant spyglass and spun it across the night sky—way too fast! Whoosh! Stars zoomed past the lens in a wild, blurry smear.
Rowan stopped, held a breath, and spotted a giant glowing circle! “I found it!” But wait… it wasn't Pip's spot. It was just the yellow moon, wobbling on the reflection of the duck pond between two very sleepy ducks. Tick slapped his paws over his eyes, and Pip's light flickered with worry. They were no closer to Pip’s spot than when they started.
“Slow down, little traveler,” Maren said gently, turning the spyglass right side up. “A magic tool only works if you use a smart plan first.”
Rowan planted both feet, took a deep breath, and looked at the giant map the way you look for your favorite toy in a messy playroom—slowly, corner by corner.
The night sky was enormous! There were bear-shaped stars and boat-shaped stars, stars that looked like crown jewels, and stars spilling like shiny rivers. Rowan searched and searched until—aha!
Rowan's eyes stopped on a constellation shaped just like a tiny soup ladle, right between a swan and a kite. The very bottom star was completely gone, leaving a blank spot exactly Pip's size.
“The Little Ladle!” Pip gasped, wiggling with joy. “That’s my home! I’m the bottom of the handle! I scoop the sky!”
Maren traced the ladle with her glowing star-wand. “It swings low tonight, right over Great Pine Hill before dawn,” she whispered. “Low enough to reach—if you have a clever plan and a rope.”
They packed up like a team of secret superhero helpers. Maren coiled her silver moon-rope over Rowan's shoulder, and Tick grabbed his spool of bright red kite string—“for emergencies, and also regular-gencies!” Maren handed Rowan a thermos of warm starlight to keep Pip’s glow bright, and off they rushed into the night.
Outside, the wind had woken up. It roared through the trees with giant whooshes, blowing so hard that Pip flickered like a candle flame.
Halfway up the trail, a giant gust of wind snatched Tick right off Rowan’s shoulder! Rowan gasped, reached out, and caught the little mouse by his tiny tail, dangling him upside down.
Tick adjusted his giant cap, crossed his tiny arms, and huffed, “I MEANT to do that. I was just testing the wind speed.”
By the time they reached Great Pine Hill, the Little Ladle was sliding down the sky, bright and slow, like a giant spoon lowering into a bowl of soup.
The hill is close, the Little Ladle is sliding down the sky, and the hardest choice of the night is on the next page. The full book has 9 choices, 3 friendly dead ends and 7 different endings, so it’s a new adventure every time you read it.
Good thinking. Retracing Pip’s fall through Glimmer Meadow (page 19) and riding the Night Train up Skyhill (page 33) are two whole paths of their own, each with its own choices, dead end and endings. They’re in the full book.
From the parent guide: the Blind Pitch
When a problem appears in the story, cover the choices with your hand before reading them aloud. Ask: “If you were standing right there, what’s the very first thing YOU would try?” Let them pitch their own plan, then reveal the options and see if the book thought of it.
That’s one of two parent moves in Book 1’s Grown-Up’s Ticket. The story practices two of Storybranch’s seven thinking skills: think first, then ask and learn from every outcome. The full guide, with voices, rituals, a re-read tracker and an observation log, is in the free PDF.
Questions parents ask
How old should my child be for this book?
Storybranch books are written for ages 3–8 and are made to be read aloud by a grown-up. Three- and four-year-olds choose from the pictures and your voice; six- to eight-year-olds often start reading the choices themselves.
How does a branching picture book work?
At each choice, your child decides what Rowan does next and you turn to the page that choice names. Book 1 has 9 choices, 3 friendly dead ends that send you back to choose again, and 7 different endings, so each reading can go somewhere new.
What is the Grown-Up’s Ticket?
It’s the parent guide that comes with every book. For Book 1 it explains the two thinking skills in the story (think first, then ask, and learn from every outcome), gives two parent moves to use at the choices, and includes a re-read tracker and an observation log.
How much is the full book?
The Storybranch series is $49 a month for a new adventure and parent guide every month, or Book 1 on its own is $59. Shipping is included in the US and Canada, and you can pause or cancel any time.
All aboard
Find out if Pip gets home.
“A star has fallen out of the sky, and it can’t remember where it belongs.”
