Synopsis
Otho was born with a pumpkin for a head. And despite what one might think, he was not seen as a curiosity by his family. So begins this brilliantly droll tale of a very unusual boy. Otho loses his pumpkin head–quite literally–when a bat decides it would make a good home. And despite what one might think, this is not the end for Otho, but the beginning of a great adventure. Is Otho’s story a parable? A cautionary tale? A celebration of the individual? A head trip? That is something each reader (and Otho) will have to decide. . . . .
The New York Times
In this story of love, disaster and astonishing good luck, Eric Rohmann twines threads from folklore, popular culture, printmaking and the book arts. He's a storyteller and artist who understands his form -- the picture book -- very well indeed. The art features bold black lines, like the pictures in Rohmann's My Friend Rabbit, which won the 2003 Caldecott Medal, with a simple palette of sapphire blue, light blue and, of course, pumpkin orange. Most of the pictures are small, surrounded by white margins. Where he varies the format it's for dramatic effect, as when an ambitious bat, supposing he would like to live in Otho's head, flies right out of the boundary of the picture with the amazed pumpkin head in its claws, leaving the boy's body behind. — Susan Marie Swanson