A Picture Book a Day for a Year: Day 61

Picture Book: Little Oh

Author: Laura Krauss Melmed 

Illustrator: Jim LaMarche

Summary: A lonely Japanese potter makes lovely clay pieces and origami. One evening, she makes a beautiful paper girl who comes to life during the night. When the woman exclaims, “Oh!” the child’s name becomes “Little Oh”. Loving stories and songs follow as the mother and child bond. Despite being very protective of her paper daughter, on their first outing a dog upsets the new mother’s basket, and Little Oh is lost. Thanks to a grieving crane, Little Oh is returned, but by mistake to a nearby home. After watching the loving father and son who live there, Little Oh folds herself into a heart and does some matchmaking. When the father returns the paper heart to the potter, Little Oh takes human form and a new family is born. Even the sad crane has a family at the end of this magical story.

Hanna’s Comments: This is an original fairy tale that will be enjoyed by girls and boys because of its excitement, including a wild river ride aboard a teacup. There is a great potential here for conversations on issues such as what makes a loving family and the difficulty of grieving one who is lost or has died.                  

Publisher & Date of Publication: Harper Collins, 1997                                          

Age and Grade Appropriateness:  3 and up, Pre and up      

# of Pages: 32                                                                                        

Available in Spanish? Not at present                                                              

Formats other than Book: None at present                  

PBT Category: Pre 2K

PBT Topics this Book Connects with: adaptation/assimilation, adventure, art, Asia, babies/children, beginnings/morning, belonging, blessings, bravery/courage, challenges, companionship, creativity/imagination/ingenuity, difficulties, family, found, gifts/giftedness/talents, gladness/happiness, God’s care/providence, home, journeys/pilgrimages/migration/quests, kindness, loneliness, lost, love, manna, mothers, obstacles, parables/stories, parents/parental love, perseverance, searching, siblings/sibling rivalry, transformation, unity, wilderness

Scripture Connections: The Book of Ruth; The lost, coin, sheep & particularly the lost Prodigal Son (Luke 15)

Idea(s) for Application: as part of a lesson on how God uses our abilities to help others which also indirectly benefits and even heals us