Otto Tattercoat and the Forest of Lost Things

May 11, 2020
After Otto’s father dies, he and his seamstress mother move to Hodeldorf, “the coldest city in the world,” planning to sell coats for a living. The city’s temperatures have been dropping for 50 years, and the streets are filled with tattercoats: children who sleep on rooftops, steal to survive, and live by the five rules of the honorable Tattercode (“Rule 5—You must only own one coat at a time”). When his mother disappears, Otto finds himself toiling to meet quotas at profit-obsessed Frau Ferber’s Boot Polish Factory, where the town’s other lone children are housed in exchange for grueling work. Assisted by tattercoat Nim, Otto escapes, joining the tattercoats’ number before setting off on a journey, through “wolves and witches and never-ending woods,” to find his mother. Woods (The Girl Who Sailed the Stars) fills her tale with vivid settings—a Dickensian atmosphere, a fairyland forest—and touching teamwork, and Otto’s fortitude makes for a winning read. Ages 8–12.