Otis & Peanut Forever and Ever is the second outing for the best friends (a guinea pig and a naked mole rat) by Naseem Hrab. Due out 16th April 2024 from Owlkids Books, it's 80 pages and will be available in hardcover and ebook formats.
This is a sweetly appealing, poignant, and sensitively written early chapter book (three stories) about friendship with themes of loss, remembering, holding on to memories, and making new ones. The stories are gentle and can be read without particular emphasis on the loss of Peanut's sister Pearl (it's never explicitly stated in this book). The friends remember Pearl by making (and eventually eating) Pearl's favorite cake recipe, learning to make the jam she always made, and when Peanut plants a garden with seeds she left for him.
They also go on some adventures and make new memories together. The art by Kelly Collier is simple and fun with lots of small details which invite readers to take a closer look. The illustrations are in color throughout the book.
Four and a half stars. Surprisingly deep, but never maudlin. Although one of the themes is the loss of Peanut's sibling, it's never directly stated in this book and could be glossed over if reading in a group. This would be an excellent choice for public or school library acquisition, for home library, or gift purposes.
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes
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