With colourful, bold-line illustrations, this is a charming story for age three and up

The thickly inked illustrations surrounded by lots of white space have an uncluttered, simple look that is appropriate for young readers . . . A sweet tale

Cleminson, selected as one of Booktrust's Best New Illustrators for her lovely, inky line, subtle sense of colour and child-friendly playfulness, has produced an ideal story for communicating the magic of reading

Katie captured the judges' imagination with her dreamy illustrations

There's something genially old-fashioned about it all. Otto endures hardship and adventure (including the brush-off he receives from a pair of alley cats) as he flees his old existence and finds new sources of companionship. In this case, the animal adrift ends up with fellow story characters as well as with human readers, who, as they will in real life too, want to keep Otto around

Katie's illustrations are full of space, gentle colour and apparent simplicity. She also has a real way with drawing animals - Otto is a very handsome bear, a bear that you'll want to hug and make space for on your bookshelves