Otto Tattercoat and the Forest of Lost Things

March 15, 2020
When Otto's mother disappears shortly after the pair arrives in Hodeldorf--"the coldest city in the world"--Otto meets an orphaned girl named Nim, and a series of adventures ensues. The book evokes the worlds of Roald Dahl, Neil Gaiman, and traditional fairy tales. The third-person narrative meanders gracefully among the points of view of an omniscient narrator, Otto, and Nim. Na�ve, kindhearted Otto is easily duped into servitude in the boot-polish factory of villainous Frau Ferber. Nim, motivated by guilt from an earlier encounter with Otto, manages to rescue him--and Otto expands his goal of finding his mother to rescuing all of Frau Ferber's child labor force. Nim helps Otto join the tattercoats, a band of homeless children with a strict code of honor. Two of its five rules state that they must steal only what they need and that no one may possess more than one coat--despite the atrocious cold that forces them to sleep near people's chimneys. Other than two brief, death-from-freezing descriptions, threatened dangers are frequent but violence rare; baddies meet imaginative but nonfatal justice. A misunderstood ex-tattercoat named Blink, a rat named Nibbles, and numerous forest denizens add humor and/or menace to an already engrossing tale. The light tone assures young readers that good will prevail over bad and that sometimes people just have to venture into the woods. All characters seem to be white. Both charming and wise. (Fantasy. 8-11)

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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.

Starred review from June 1, 2020
Grades 3-6 *Starred Review* The bitterly cold town of Hodeldorf is not the kind of place that Otto is excited to move to, but his mother believes her talent for sewing coats will secure the two of them a good, happy life there. Luck doesn't seem to have followed the boy, though, for on his second day in Hodeldorf, his coat is stolen off his back, and his mother fails to return to the inn, eventually forcing the innkeeper to turn Otto away. When a girl finds him shivering in an alley, she tricks him into going to Frau Ferber's factory, where he and other children are forced to work filling jars with black boot polish?using only their hands. Frau Ferber proves a Roald Dahl-level villain, and the outlook for Otto is bleak until he escapes into Hodeldorf's community of Tattercoats. These scrappy street kids live by a respectable code, promising to never steal more than they need, and Nim takes Otto under her wing, vowing to help him find his mother. Wood (The Girl Who Sailed the Stars, 2019) spins another frosty tale of magic and bravery that offers high stakes without becoming too scary. Readers will love seeing kids triumph over the heartless frau, and the story's other, more fantastical mysteries give the book extra sparkle.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)

July 10, 2020

Gr 4 Up-A magical new adventure awaits readers in Woods's latest novel that weaves Grimm's fairy tales into the freezing city of Hodeldorf. Otto and his mother have just moved to the coldest place in the world to sell coats, and when Otto's mother goes missing, he finds himself in an unforgiving city where the adults are as cold as the weather. As he searches for his mother, Otto finds friendship among the Tattercoats, a group of homeless children who survive on the street by a strict code. Otto's search brings him and his new friends, Nim and Blink, to the forest, where they find that magic and the increasing cold are intertwined. Suddenly, in addition to Otto's mother, they need to save the future of the city as well. Young readers may find the Dickensian elements of Hodeldorf dark at first, but will ultimately find that kindness and helping others in need can cause a beautiful ripple effect. Otto's journey to reunite with his mother is also Nim and Blink's, as they use their Tattercoat skills to thwart trouble that crosses their path. At first, the adventure can feel it has two separate narratives, one in the city and the other in the forest, but the story finishes with questions answered along with a happy ending. VERDICT This quirky magical adventure is comparable to Cornelia Funke's The Thief Lord, Eva Ibbotson's Which Witch, and the works of Roald Dahl.-Hilary Tufo, Columbus Metropolitan Lib., Reynoldsburg, OH

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