“Once, an otter found a box. In it were fine clothes and fancy things.”
So otter does what any of us would do in the same situation – he tries them on. Otter feels magnificent in them, and again, who wouldn’t in a pair of bright pink cowboy boots adorned with hearts?
King Otter by Jane Porter is a tale about the power of transformation, but not in a ‘clothes make the man’ kind of way, more the slow but inevitable corruption of whomever bears the One Ring in Lord of the Rings…(I mean, it’s a picture book, so it doesn’t go that dark, but you get the idea!)
Otter declares himself King Otter because he feels like a right bobby dazzler and then starts bossing his friends around, demanding they make him all manner of ego-stroking regal accoutrements. But it’s not long before things start to unravel for Otter and he learns a valuable lesson about friendship and the merits of appreciating the simple things in life.
Jane Porter’s illustrations are bright, fun & sketchy, and admittedly, King Otter does look adorable in his fine new outfit. She captures the animals’ facial expressions brilliantly, making this a book where you see something different on the page with every read.
Also, this is a great book if you like to use silly voices when reading aloud (if you don’t already then give it a go!) as discovered by my children when they took it in turns to flounce about like King Otter minus the pink boots (although I do have a pair of spectacular boots to rival King Otter’s)…”Unicorns – start prancing.”
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