ottoline and the yellow cat by chris riddell

Despite this rather neglectful state of affairs, she is well looked after by an eclectic and well-meaning assortment of hired help.

Ottoline is, rather sadly, a long-term latchkey kid. Their only mode of communication with their daughter is postcards that they regularly send from exotic locations. Ottoline Brown’s parents are professors and professional collectors who travel the world. We are then introduced to the little girl’s rather unusual living arrangements. Could there be a connection between these burglaries and the posters of missing lapdogs? Hmmmmm. In Ottoline and the Yellow Cat, the first in a series of early reader books that chronicle her adventures, we are presented with newspaper clippings that describe a spate of robberies involving wealthy and bejewelled high society ladies. Clever, stoic, thoughtful and mature beyond her years (though her age is never fully disclosed), Ottoline is, to top it off, a dab hand at mystery-solving. As outlandish as it sounds, Ottoline is an extremely relatable character.ĭespite her quirks, she is utterly charming. But she is not too young to spend her days by herself in an artifact-filled apartment in the company of a hairy Norwegian bog person called Mr. Ottoline is too young to accompany her remarkably prescient absentee parents on their world wanderings. Whenever Ottoline bought a pair of shoes, she would wear one and put the other in her collection.” One was her Odd Shoe collection, of which she was very proud. “Ottoline had two collections that were all her own.

Ottoline and the yellow cat by chris riddell