Ottoline Goes to School
Grade 3-6&ndash;In this second story about Ottoline, who lives with her faithful, hairy best friend, Mr. Monroe, readers are visually thrust into her Big City life, as she befriends Cecily, who is quite a storyteller, and decides to accompany her to the Alice B. Smith School for the Differently Gifted. There the students, each with an outlandish and noteworthy pet, seek out their talents in origami curtain-making, plate-spinning, tea-sipping, and other different arts. Ottoline flounders, unable to find her special talent, but is drawn to the mystery of the curse of the Horse of Hammersteins. In the end, she proves to be a fine sleuth. From the pagination symbols to the postcards Ottoline sends and receives from her Roving Collector parents, each illustration is ornately drawn in ink, akin to the style of Edward Gorey, but sunnier. The layout flaunts myriad combinations of picture and text. This is an outstanding example of a picture book-cum-graphic novel, in which Riddell dazzles readers with visual detail and comical oddities and language that is rich, zany, and imaginative. It will satisfy visually needy and visually discerning readers.&ndash;Sara Paulson-Yarovoy, American Sign Language and English Lower School PS 347, New York CityCopyright &copy; Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.