Big City Otto Review

Big City Otto (Elephants Never Forget 1) written by Bill Slavin with Esperanca Melo, art by Bill Slavin

(from the back of the book)
It's said that elephants never forget, and Otto is no exception.  He just can't stop thinking about his long lost friend Georgie, a chimp snatched from the jungle by the mysterious Man with the Wooden Nose.  So with the help of his parrot pal, Crackers, Otto sets off for America in search of his childhood chum.  But from the moment this unlikely pair tumbles out of the baggage claim at a big city airport, trouble seems to be all these two manage to find...

It's fun.  There are some predictable jokes about how Otto breaks things without meaning to, or misunderstands something because he has never been in a city before.  And there are the running jokes about how he is self-conscience of his size and allergic to peanuts.  But the story is goofy and silly and meant to be so, so the jokes are still cute, and to a young audience they will be even funnier than they were to me.  The illustrations and bright and fun.  And by the end of the book you are worried about Georgie, sad for Otto, and attached to Crackers for sticking with his friend through all the trouble they get into.  You want to find out what happens to everyone so you will more than likely go and get the next book.  And the best sign of a good story is when you want to keep reading even when the book is over.