Sheree Van Vreede (Children's Literature)
The story of Little Oh is a fairytale of an origami doll that comes to life. Readers follow Little Oh on her adventures, discovering just how dangerous a dog or water can be to someone made of paper. Little Oh becomes the tie that brings a family together. It is a book that stretches the imagination. Creative, colorful illustrations make the book even more appealing. 1997, Lothrop Lee & Shepard Books, $16.00. Ages 7 to 10.

Kirkus (Kirkus Reviews, 1997)
Like these collaborators' The Rainbabies (1992), this work has parental love as its theme. Little Oh, an origami girl who has come to life for her creator, a lonely Japanese woman, is lost one day in a bustling market. She is chased by a hungry dog, floated down a foaming cataract in a teacup, and flown homeward by a friendly crane. A motherless boy finds her, and when he and his father return Little Oh to her mother, the paper girl miraculously becomes a human child, the man and woman fall in love and marry, and Little Oh's family is complete. This new work belongs in the company of such standards as The Steadfast Tin Soldier, Pinocchio, The Peach Boy, and Thumbelina. Once again, LaMarche demonstrates his extraordinary ability to portray emotions in the human face, and his soft mixed-media paintings are filled with details of exceptional beauty: cracks in the glaze of a porcelain cup, the sheen of orange skins, evergreens blanketed in golden early-morning mist. A flawless work: Readers are certain to look carefully at Little Oh's folds, and attempt to make an origami doll, too. 1997, Lothrop, $16.00; PLB $15.93. Starred Review. © 1997 Kirkus Reviews/VNU eMedia, Inc. All rights reserved.

Pat Mathews (The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, October 1997 (Vol. 51, No. 2))
Tell me the story of Little Oh!" begs the boy to his mother at Number One Pink Petal Lane, and she does. In this original folk tale (set in Japan), detailed acrylic and colored pencil illustrations dazzle the eye as the story unfolds about a little origami paper girl in a pink kimono who springs to life one morning and adopts her astonished maker as her mother. On being taken to the market with her mother, Little Oh is admonished, "Now climb into my basket and hide under the cloth. And don't peek out, or you might fall from the basket." In a predictable moment, Little Oh disregards her mother's direction, and a sinister black dog spies the delicate doll. After a series of close calls, she is eventually rescued by a benevolent crane, who returns her to the wrong house where she languishes on a doorstep like a pathetic little valentine, which indeed she turns out to be. The residents of the home, a man and his son, find Little Oh and deliver her to her mother. Little Oh instantly becomes a real girl through a flash of ambiguous magic and they all live happily-ever-after-ish as one big happy family. The handsome, light-flecked pictures with the mother's wonderfully expressive face and the delicate winsomeness of the tiny Little Oh give the appearance of an elegant page-turner, but the story never quite lives up to the pictures' promise. This is a lovely-to-look-at confection, but its shallow, saccharine plot may be too sweet even for junior palates. Ad--Additional book of acceptable quality for collections needing more material in the area. (c) Copyright 1997, The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois. 1997, Lothrop, 32p, $15.93 and $16.00. Ages 5-8 yrs.

Dan Dailey (The Five Owls, September/October 1997 (Vol. 12, No. 1))
No, this isn't really how children are made or how families are formed. But it is an allegory that works on a symbolic level. And it does describe--with beauty, refinement, and style--how love is the basis of nurturing family relationships. The story of Little Oh is a story-within-a-story, a tale told mother-to-son, about an origami paper doll that comes to life before the astonished woman who created her. "Good morning, Mother!" says the doll as she springs from a lacquer box. "Oh!" exclaims the woman, and so names the doll. All day long, and then for days on end, the woman spent all her time playing with Little Oh instead of performing her craft as a potter. Every day her love for the doll grew. But she made no wares to sell, and with no income, the woman at last ran out of food and was forced to return to her work. (Working mothers may see a parallel here with their own experiences after childbirth.) "Take me with you to the market!" Little Oh begged as her mother packed a set of teacups for sale. Mother agrees, and pens a return address on Little Oh's back as a precaution. Soon after, Little Oh is packed snugly within a teacup within a basket that her mother carries to town. At market a hungry dog sees Little Oh move, and attacks the basket. Pandemonium results, and poor Little Oh finds herself afloat in the teacup on a river that turns to white water rapids and waterfalls. Landfall on a sandy beach introduces Little Oh to a she-crane, who is mourning for her dead husband. "Day after day I stand here alone, remembering better times," she says to Little Oh. "I miss somebody I love, too," says Little Oh. "Maybe a song will cheer us up." And it does. The crane and Little Oh become fast friends, and the next day the crane flies Little Oh to the garden of a house that from the air looked like Little Oh's home. After the crane flies away, Little Oh is dismayed to discover this is not her home, but the home of a man and a little boy. After sleeping several nights in an empty watering can, Little Oh remembers the home address penned on her back. She folds herself into the shape of a heart and flutters to rest near the front door, waiting to be found by the little boy (who gives the heart to his father). When the father returns the paper heart to the penned address and into the hands of Little Oh's mother, the heart is magically transformed into a real little girl who shouts, "I'm Little Oh, Mother!" and dances into her mother's arms. Here the story-within-the-story ends. "You know the rest," says the mother to the son. "The man and woman fell in love and married, and Little Oh and the boy became brother and sister." With the story's end, the little boy leaves his mother to play outside with Little Oh, thus leaving the reader with a delicious dash of ambiguity. This is the first collaboration between author Laura Krauss Melmed and illustrator Jim LaMarche since their highly-acclaimed The Rainbabies. This is a gentle yet memorable story, well-told in stunningly beautiful words and pictures. We welcome its September release with enthusiasm. 1997, Lothrop Lee and Shepard, 9-1/2 x 11-1/4, 32 pages, $16.00. Ages 4 up.

Horn Book (The Horn Book Guide, 1997)
An origami doll who comes to life relieves the loneliness of her creator-mother before some unexpected adventures take her far away. Her return and metamorphosis into a human child whose family expands to include a father and brother may strain credulity, but not the heart. Airy, lifelike illustrations portray the interior Japanese home of shoji screens and tatami mats as well as the evocative misty landscape. Category: Fiction. 1997, Lothrop, 32pp.. Ages 5 to 9. Rating: 2: Superior, well above average.