Fern and Otto: A Story about Two Best Friends by Stephanie Graegin (review)

Fern (a bear) and Otto (a cat) are best friends and apparently housemates, and Fern loves writing stories about their happy days together. Otto, however, would like something more adventurous, so he leads Fern out into the forest in search of some exciting story fodder. They encounter a race between a tortoise and a hare, a girl handing out porridge in a house that doesn't seem like hers ("Why were there so many bear things in that house?" asks Otto), and various other folklorically familiar events, all of which Otto scorns as not tale-worthy ("No one writes stories about … chickens being bopped on the head"). When they run into a hungry witch, that's all the excitement Otto needs and more, so the two beat a hasty retreat home and Fern writes her book, mentioning the various critters they encountered along the way but still focusing on her happy times with Otto. Otto is a gratifying audience proxy as he punctures the sweetness of Fern's affectionate tribute to their friendship with comments so dismissive that the eyeroll is practically audible ("Have you ever seen a tortoise move quickly?"), but listeners will also revel in seeing and grasping everything he misses in what's going on around him. Graegin's pencil and digital artwork has the delicate yet homey detail of her Little Fox in the Forest (BCCB 2/17), and fans of that book will spot its titular character tiptoeing along behind our heroes; all viewers will get a kick out of hunting for and naming various nursery rhyme, folktale, and kid-lit characters, from Mother Goose and the Three Little Pigs to Edward Lear's Owl and the Pussycat, who gambol through the pages. There's also a message for aspiring writers: the best stories are right under your nose.