A quiet delight in so many ways. Empathetic and horizon broadening, with child-carer representation, this is a must for any school classroom or library.
This book was such a quiet delight in so many ways. Jakub is a child carer, devoted to his mum with MS and diligently ensuring that he cooks, cleans, helps her to bed and then does his homework. He doesn’t allow himself to think that he might be missing out, but his mother knows he needs a break, and arranges for Jakub to go on holiday to rural Italy with family friends who have a house there. Jakub finds it hard to relax, is quite fearful of the unfamiliar, and is certain that he and the Koniks’ daughter Marta will not be friends.
Gradually, story-loving and free-spirited Marta breaks through Jakub’s reserve, but it’s elderly woodsman Signor Mancini, who teaches him the ways of the forest and entrusts him with the care of an injured and pregnant otter, that Jakub really looks up to. We see Jakub glow again with the responsibility that forms so much of his character, but also learn that no matter how much he cares, he can’t control every outcome.
Rumble is best known for her poetry for children, and earlier verse novel ‘Little Light’, but there are many poems in ‘Jakub’s Otter’ too, written by Marta in her diary, a clever way of giving another character’s POV in a first-person narration, as well as a gentle introduction to young readers of the possibility that poetry is for anyone. As in her Caterpillar-award-winning poem ‘Mustafa’s Jumper’, Rumble’s book is a masterclass in empathy building: towards others’ struggles, towards nature, even towards people who annoy you at first and with whom you think you have nothing in common. But it’s the relationships that are so deftly woven throughout the book – old/young, parent/child, mentor/protegee, girl/boy, human/animal – that really give ‘Jakub’s Otter’ its heart. A must for any classroom or school library.