Otter Out of Water

Wargin (S Is for Snowman) plays in the loopy "what if" territory of Laura Numeroff's If You Give... series with this story of a river-dwelling otter that follows two kids home and causes chaos. Most of the book is written in second-person, and the rhyme scheme is suggestive of a campfire singalong: "Now what if that otter follows you home?/ Will you hop, will you skip?/ Will you whistle and yip?/ Will you hide in the bushes to give him the slip?/ What if that otter follows you home?" Working in loose watercolor and pencil, British illustrator Bendall-Brunello (Peep Leap) creates a mischievous, friendly-looking otter and two siblings that look nervous about their furry pursuer but warm up to him, feeding him popcorn for lunch and giving him a bath in the kitchen sink before animal control finally arrives. It's only in the final pages that the story falters, with the narrative suddenly switching to first-person ("So what happened to us on that very next day?/ We better not say") and ending inconclusively with a full-scale otter invasion. Ages 4-8. (Feb.)

PreS-Gr 1--Wargin and Bendall-Brunello team up again, this time asking their young readers, "But what if that otter/jumps out of the water?/Would you shout hip-hooray?/Would you ask him to play?/Would you clap?/Would you stomp?/Would you go for a romp?/What if that otter jumps out of the water?" The comical story continues as the mischievous creature follows two children home and begins to cause trouble. Wargin includes plenty of jaunty, interactive rhymes, making this story an excellent read-aloud. Bendall-Brunello's illustrations are colorful and droll, matching the humorous tone of the text, as does the font, which is as bold and energetic as the impish otter. Children will laugh along with its playful antics and particularly enjoy the surprising and appropriately silly ending, in which the otter's whole family arrives to cause even more hilarious mayhem.--Laura J. Giunta, Garden City Public Library, NY