"hop o' my thumb" (french: le petit poucet) is a fairy tale by charles perrault. it was first published in 1697 in paris by claude barbin in "histoires ou contes du temps passé" (stories or tales of past times), a collection of eight fairy tales by perrault. the story tells of several brothers abandoned by their parents. the smallest brother is the same size as a person's thumb. he saves his brothers from an ogre. perrault's rhyming moral at the end of the story tells readers that sometimes the smallest boy in the family brings good things to all.