Otto Tattercoat and the Forest of Lost Things

Matilda Woods's Otto Tattercoat and the Forest of Lost Things is a wintry, fairy-tale adventure for 11 year olds set in the coldest city in the world.

What happens

Otto and his mum arrive in Hodeldorf by train. It's so cold that birds freeze in mid-air and drop out of the sky. When the clock tower tolls three times, you'd better keep your fire lit or you won't wake up. The stationmaster takes one look at them and tells them to get back on the train.

His mum makes beautiful coats, and she's sure she'll sell plenty here. The next morning she heads out in her red coat with its white fur trim. She doesn't come back.

Two weeks later, Otto is still searching. He's met Nim, a tattercoat (one of the city's street children, who sleep curled up against the chimneys). She has a pet rat called Nibbles who wears a tiny coat of his own and is, she says, the second-best thief she's ever met.

In a single day Otto loses his emerald coat to a thief called Blink, most of his money to Nibbles, and his room at the inn. So when a kind-looking girl with a lantern offers to take him to someone who can find his mum, he goes. He doesn't notice her hands are stained black.

It feels like an old fairy tale, with a greedy factory owner, locked doors and a dark forest full of rumours all around the walls. Nim's chapters are a proper treat. She rates everything by its coat and has very firm views on the rules of being a tattercoat. You'll probably want her on your side.

It's quite a dark one, which is worth knowing. The very first chapter opens with a couple who have frozen to death in the street, and their baby being handed over to the factory. Otto's dad died of an illness before the story starts. Inside the factory, children scoop boot polish for thirteen hours a day and miss dinner if they fall short. A girl is dragged away by her hair. The other children say one boy stopped speaking after being locked in the cellar.

That might be too much for a child who's upset by cruelty to other children. If your reader loves a snowy adventure with real peril and a gang of children looking out for each other, they'll be gripped.

What to read next

If they'd like more of Matilda Woods's storytelling, try The Boy, the Bird and the Coffin Maker. It's set in a bright seaside town where fish fly out of the sea. Fair warning though, it opens with a sickness that takes a whole family, so it starts sad too.