Why does little A look like that?

Spirit of the Book

A playful tale in which children learning to write encounter names evoking cultural diversity — Latin, Arabic, Hebrew, Greek and Egyptian — and have fun spotting objects in the illustrations whose names begin with… A!

At the end of the book, a short nonfiction appendix explores the origins of other letters of the alphabet, along with a graphic exploration workbook designed to exercise the imagination.

Synopsis

One evening, Little A asks his parents why his head looks the way it does. Since they do not know, he sets out in search of his ancestors. First he visits his relatives, then the neighbours in the Alphabet neighbourhood, before venturing into worlds beyond his own.

At the very beginning of it all, did A represent a funny hat, a bird’s beak, the roof of a castle or a bull’s head?

Little A’s journey is sure to reveal a truth that turns everything upside down!

What we love about the book:

◊ Sophie Puls’s expressive visual world, made from reclaimed, cut, painted and collaged papers;

all those different As;

◊ the idea of children discovering the long history of the letter A — and its travels too.

◊ the idea that whenever children write an A, they inherit this diversity and carry it forward in their own turn;

◊ and finally, the thought that after finishing the book, children will continue having fun by investigating the history of the other letters.

Publication date: 4 September 2026

Author & Illustrator

Sophie Puls lives and works in Saumur. After studying literature and spending time travelling, she devoted herself to her passion for drawing and art, first as a graphic designer and later as an author-artist.

A committed self-taught artist, her approach is above all poetic and intimately connected to writing. Combined with imagery, her words create a playful comic contrast that is characteristic of her imaginative and whimsical world.

Also by the same author-illustrator at HongFei: Mais où vont les camions ? (03/2025) and Mais où vont les avions ? (04/2026).