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LITTLE O WANTED TO KNOW

Name: LITTLE O WANTED TO KNOW
Author: Rhea Sarason
ISBN: 9780063446199

A FABLE ABOUT FINDING YOUR TRUE SELF

by Rhea Sarason ; illustrated by Barroux ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 31, 2026

Uplifting but rambling.

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Lowercase letter o embarks on a physical and emotional journey.

“Once upon a line, / o sat before p, and n was behind.” But o doesn’t care for the rigidity of alphabetical order, and don’t get her started on the Alphabet Song: “Must we sing the song this way? / What if we sung it from z to a?” In frustration, o rolls off and ends up in a land of shapes, but still she doesn’t fit in, which undermines her self-esteem. This letters-as-characters story won’t be mistaken for Chicka Chicka Boom Boom—it’s self-help intended for kids, and though it’s well meaning, it’s too long and meandering and on the didactic side. The narrative, which has its roots in a viral TikTok video, culminates with o realizing that she’s actually Zero, after which there’s some straining for Seussian uplift, and by this point, Sarason seems to have given up on trying to make her rhymes scan (“Finding a place within herself, / O made her dream come true.… // And if you look close enough, / you’ll find O within yOu.” Barroux does what he can with a cast restricted to letters, shapes, and, eventually, numbers, rendering each with a single color (o is purple), skinny limbs, and ping-pong-ball–like eyes with dot pupils. The characters go about their business on flower-speckled green grass, without which this story, which is largely set against open space, might look rather dystopian.

Uplifting but rambling. (author’s note) (Picture book. 4-8)

Pub Date: March 31, 2026

ISBN: 9780063446199

Page Count: 112

Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins

Review Posted Online: Jan. 19, 2026

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2026

Categories:

CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

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ON THE FIRST DAY OF KINDERGARTEN

by Tish Rabe ; illustrated by Laura Hughes ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 21, 2016

While this is a fairly bland treatment compared to Deborah Lee Rose and Carey Armstrong-Ellis’ The Twelve Days of...

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Rabe follows a young girl through her first 12 days of kindergarten in this book based on the familiar Christmas carol.

The typical firsts of school are here: riding the bus, making friends, sliding on the playground slide, counting, sorting shapes, laughing at lunch, painting, singing, reading, running, jumping rope, and going on a field trip. While the days are given ordinal numbers, the song skips the cardinal numbers in the verses, and the rhythm is sometimes off: “On the second day of kindergarten / I thought it was so cool / making lots of friends / and riding the bus to my school!” The narrator is a white brunette who wears either a tunic or a dress each day, making her pretty easy to differentiate from her classmates, a nice mix in terms of race; two students even sport glasses. The children in the ink, paint, and collage digital spreads show a variety of emotions, but most are happy to be at school, and the surroundings will be familiar to those who have made an orientation visit to their own schools.

While this is a fairly bland treatment compared to Deborah Lee Rose and Carey Armstrong-Ellis’ The Twelve Days of Kindergarten (2003), it basically gets the job done. (Picture book. 4-7)

Pub Date: June 21, 2016

ISBN: 978-0-06-234834-0

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins

Review Posted Online: May 3, 2016

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2016

Categories:

CHILDREN'S CONCEPTS | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

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by Tish Rabe ; illustrated by Jim Valeri

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by Tish Rabe ; illustrated by Sarah Jennings

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by Tish Rabe ; illustrated by Dan Yaccarino

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GRUMPY MONKEY

by Suzanne Lang ; illustrated by Max Lang ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 15, 2018

Though Jim may have been grumpy because a chimp’s an ape and not a monkey, readers will enjoy and maybe learn from his...

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It’s a wonderful day in the jungle, so why’s Jim Panzee so grumpy?

When Jim woke up, nothing was right: "The sun was too bright, the sky was too blue, and bananas were too sweet." Norman the gorilla asks Jim why he’s so grumpy, and Jim insists he’s not. They meet Marabou, to whom Norman confides that Jim’s grumpy. When Jim denies it again, Marabou points out that Jim’s shoulders are hunched; Jim stands up. When they meet Lemur, Lemur points out Jim’s bunchy eyebrows; Jim unbunches them. When he trips over Snake, Snake points out Jim’s frown…so Jim puts on a grimacelike smile. Everyone has suggestions to brighten his mood: dancing, singing, swinging, swimming…but Jim doesn’t feel like any of that. He gets so fed up, he yells at his animal friends and stomps off…then he feels sad about yelling. He and Norman (who regrets dancing with that porcupine) finally just have a sit and decide it’s a wonderful day to be grumpy—which, of course, makes them both feel a little better. Suzanne Lang’s encouragement to sit with your emotions (thus allowing them to pass) is nearly Buddhist in its take, and it will be great bibliotherapy for the crabby, cranky, and cross. Oscar-nominated animator Max Lang’s cartoony illustrations lighten the mood without making light of Jim’s mood; Jim has comically long arms, and his facial expressions are quite funny.

Though Jim may have been grumpy because a chimp’s an ape and not a monkey, readers will enjoy and maybe learn from his journey. (Picture book. 4-8)