Oct 31 2009
Ottoline Goes to School by Chris Riddell
Cover of Ottoline Goes to School
For those of you keeping score at home, I have been exploring what you might call the graphic novel side of children’s and young adult literature. Works that are more than picture books; chapter books with a heavy visual aspect to them.
The latest book I stumbled upon at the library, Ottoline Goes to School, is actually the second book in a series but I didn’t know that at the time. Regardless, it is a witty, silly, and visually stimulating story.
Here is School Journal’s plot summary:
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.
I am most familiar with Riddell from his collaboration with Paul Stewart in The Edge Chronicles. And the illustrations here will stand out to anyone familiar with that series. But this series is much more playful and more of a graphic novel than a straightforward illustrated story.
I read this story to my daughter in one sitting and she really enjoyed it. I did as well. The illustrations are fun and full of surprises and the humor is dry and witty. The text illustration combination pack a lot into this slim volume.
As School Journal also noted:
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.
To use a cliche, this includes readers young and old.
So if you are looking for something different to read at bed time, or to have your young reader tackle themselves, this fun series is a good choice.
A man heads west with his mute son in an ill-fated attempt to get lucky in both mining and love. Foreman (Toehold, 2007) takes as his hero Gideon, a young man born with a “lazy tongue.” Unable to speak, he sticks close to his father Jubal, who readily intuits his needs and feelings. It’s the mid-’50s (Elvis Presley, Hank Williams and Patsy Cline play in the backdrop), and Jubal hopes to make his fortune by heading from Mississippi to Utah to try his hand at uranium mining. Along the way he meets Abilene Breedlove, a good-time girl who preys on men’s ambitions with little concern for morality. So when Abilene and Jubal connect early on, it’s clear to the reader-and Gideon-that there will be trouble. Foreman works in a clean, plainspoken style, writing about the Utah landscape in a manner that evokes other Western writers such as Kent Haruf and Thomas McGuane, though he adds more lurid touches as a love triangle emerges. While Jubal and Gideon work their claim, Abilene begins a lusty affair with Jack, a wealthy landowner. Foreman isn’t subtle about the sinister goings-on here; the patch of land where Jubal drills is called the Dark Angel, and Jack’s last name is Savage.
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