(bell dings) (light playful music) - [Children] Gobbledy Books!

- My name is Craig O'Neill, and I'm on television in Little Rock, Arkansas, at THV 11, but now I'm on your TV.

Why?

Because I'm gonna get to do with you my favorite thing in the whole wide world, (gasps) read a book.

You ever lost something, and you thought and you thought and you thought, thinking, where did I put it, where did I put it?

The first book I'm gonna read to you is about finding something.

And now let me get the book for you.

Let me, oh gosh, where did I put the book?

Where did... (chuckles) I knew it was there all along.

(clears throat) It is called "The Boy That Looked Harder."

"The Boy That Looked Harder."

By the way, it's written by Wesley Willcutt, and illustrated by Nina Mkhoiani.

(chimes tinkle) "James!"

His mom called.

"Where in the world are your glasses?

We're very late, so look harder okay?"

She zoomed by on her way toward the kitchen.

(gentle playful music) James froze.

Without his glasses, he was as blind as a bat, so how could he possibly look for them any harder?

He'd been stumbling about for 30 minutes trying to find them in all of the usual places, but still no luck.

And now his mom was yelling at him (gasps).

Mom popped her head back in the door.

"Check the bathroom, maybe?

And scoot!

We are really running behind!

I'll check the living room."

Poof!

She was gone again.

Fumbling into his bathroom, James flicked on the Itchy Kitchy Light Switchy, and began his blurry investigation.

It being a small room, this shouldn't take very long at all.

Things were just like he remembered leaving them.

No glasses, but his mom had said to look harder, right?

James pretended that his eyes were (whooshes) lasers.

Bright red beams scanned his potty, the Rooty Tooty Toilet.

Nope, no glasses here.

No sign of (gasps), wait!

His lasers picked out a tiny scrap of tissue hidden near the toilet brush.

Prop nearby (gasps), a clue!

He grabbed the scrap and looked at it.

Just as James had feared, invisible ink.

It is near, don't give up.

To the untrained kid, this might seem to be just another piece of trash.

But since he was looking as hard as he could, the secret note became clear.

It told him that his glasses were near and to not give up.

Keep looking harder.

James kept searching, next moving on to his Squeaky Cleany Bath Machiny.

Careful, now.

He looked high and low, spotting lots of his favorite tub toys, but no sign of his glasses, and worse yet, no more clues.

His lasers looked harder.

What was that behind his plastic T-Rex?

Reaching down, he moved the toys to the side, and there underneath was clue number two (gasps).

Sure, to the average person, it looked like a wet sock he might have forgotten to put away.

But James knew that this secret message was really a scroll pointing him in the right direction.

He wrung out the fabric and looked hard.

Look where you brush your teeth.

This time, the note was more helpful.

Look where you brush your teeth, it said.

It was leading him to the last place that he'd been before bedtime last night.

He let out an excited squeal.

Do it with me, whoo hoo!

The Wrinky Stinky Sinky was James' least favorite place in the whole bathroom.

It was too high for him to use well, so when he went to brush his teeth, he usually made a mess.

He always tried to clean it up, but mostly made an even bigger mess.

Because of this, he always hurried to be done with his chore.

Scooting his step stool over, he climbed up to have a look.

His laser eyes (whooshes) looked hard, and guess what he found?

There looking back at him, as hard as they could, were his glasses.

His mom was gonna be so proud of him.

What an adventure today had already turned out to be.

Ta-da, the end.

"The Boy That Looked Harder."

What did he teach you?

You lose something, think, where was the last place, and you'll find it, and it may just find you.

Thanks for watching.

Oh, you can bet there'll be more books.