A stunning picture book from acclaimed author Katherine Applegate, adapted from the #1 bestselling middle-grade novel that spent over 52 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list!
Odder spends her days playing underwater and learning life lessons from her mother. But when Odder’s life takes a dramatic turn, she is rescued by humans. The people are kind, and introduce Odder to other rescues. Soon, it’s clear that Odder has a talent for teaching other pups how to otter. Adapted from Katherine Applegate’s bestselling novel of the same name (with over 80 weeks on the New York Times Bestseller list!), and inspired by the true story of a program that pairs orphaned otter pups.---from the publisher
40 pages 978-1250323590 Ages 3-6
Keywords: otters, animal rescue, helping others, orphans, 3 year old, 4 year old, 5 year old, 6 year old
Editor's note: Adapted from the middle grade novel ODDER
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Odder the otter's life starts just like those of so many of her kind - cuddled on her mother's belly, being taught all the things an otter has to know and tethered to a rock with kelp when her mum has to leave her to seek food for them.
But right from the get-go there is a special sparkle in Odder's eye - she knows she was born to play.
She twists and darts, weaves and rolls, circles and swirls, leaving frothy trails in her wake. Why simply somersault when you can triple-doughnut? Why simply dive when you can dazzle?
But then a storm hits, the kelp leash breaks and she is tossed up on the sands like a piece of driftwood. Until huge shadows loom over her and strange creatures whose paws have stubby tentacles pick her up and she find herself in a clear calm pool...
A fictional account of a true story based on the work being undertaken at the Monterey Bay Aquarium in California where its resident sea otters nurture and raise orphaned pups for release into the wild, this is a beautifully illustrated picture book version of Katherine Applegate's verse novel of the same name which spent over 80 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list. Like Applegate's other stories, particularly the One and Only series, while she doesn't shy away from the real-world threats like predators, pollution, disease, habitat destruction and so on that challenge her characters and includes elements of separation, loss and grief, there is always the thread of optimism and hope that ties the narrative together. So when Odder is eventually returned to the sea and then once again, needs rescuing, there is a sense that this is not the end of her story. And, indeed it isn't.
Told in the free verse of the original, sometimes narrative, sometimes from Odder's perspective, parts of it will echo the confusion that some readers might be experiencing in their own lives, but both text and illustrations compel you to keep reading, because you care enough about Odder to want to know what happens to her.
This book, and the original, have been reviewed over and over by the best of the best so there is nothing that I can add that hasn't already been said. Except that it's exceptional - as we have come to expect from this author - and that there is an insightful interview with her here, and if you really need to dissect it rather than just appreciating it for the beauty of the story as is, then there are teachers' notes here.
This review can also be found here.
Recommended by: Barbara Braxton, Teacher Librarian, New South Wales AUSTRALIA
See more of her recommendations:
500 Hats http://500hats.edublogs.org/
The Bottom Shelf http://thebottomshelf.edublogs.org/
