Caillou (TV Series)

Caillou is a children's television show based on the books by Christine L'Heureux and illustrator Hélène Desputeaux. Many of the stories in the animated version begin with a teacher (who is also the show's narrator) introducing the story to her students, then reading the story out of the book. Caillou first aired on Canada's Teletoon channel in 1998; it later made its US debut on PBS on September 4, 2000. The action of the story takes place in Canada, though that is never explicitly referenced in the dialogue. In French, caillou usually means "pebble" or "stone", but it can also mean "bald head", which was most likely the writer's intention. The official Caillou website answers the common question "Why is Caillou bald?" by explaining that the original storybook character of Caillou was much younger than the television character, and like many very young children, had no hair.