#odder

[the-book-ferret]

Odder's story is one of community among humans and her sealife friends.

[jokingluna]

Yet another one from @maudyoulook

[eccentricreader]

Book Review: Odder by Katherine Applegate

Illustrated by: Charles Santoso Published: September 20, 2022 Category: Fiction Rating: 4/5 Stars Genre: Animal, Poetry Age Rating: 8+/Middle Grade Warnings: Realistic Animal Violence Quote: “Something about the way the little pup never settled, something about the way her eyes were always full of questions.” This story is about an otter named Odder and her life before and after a shark…

[kendyroy]

Seeing Logan in the TVA makes me laugh so hard for some reason? Like I know he’s lived to see technology evolve and stuff, but there’s something so funny about a guy from the 1800s standing in some kind of retro-futuristic timey wimey agency to me. Man is confused as hell.

like what da hell is a polar bear doin in arlington texas

[the-merry-librarian]

Odder is a verse novel following the titular Odder, a southern sea otter, and narrates her life as she grows up, hunts, and frolics in the Monterey Bay. Swept away as a pup, Odder is raised in captivity and released into the wild, growing up to be a playful and reckless otter; however, as an adult, she remains fascinated with the humans who raised her, and a terrible accident when defending her friend Kairi sends her back to the aquarium all the humans hoped she would never return to.

Genre: Fiction, Verse Novel

Target Age Group:

Ages 8-12

Justification:

I’m not at all familiar with verse novels; while I understood the concept, I’ve never sought one out—or, to my memory, read one prior to this project, although I may be misremembering. To find a book to fulfil this category, I consulted the National Council of Teachers of English list of Notable Verse Novels, selected by the NCTE’s Award for Excellence in Children’s Poetry Committee. Odder caught my eye for a very silly reason—we’ve had a copy which belongs to a local school for several months, lurking on our send-back shelf waiting for someone to come retrieve it, and familiarity combined with intrigue. (I still checked out my own copy, though.)

Evaluation:

For this review, I will be evaluating style and language, character, and point of view. Free verse is always a bit of a gamble; it can sometimes come off as a monologue that’s just bizarrely formatted, as if the writer wrote a simple line of prose and then threw in some line breaks. Odder does not have that problem. The poems are lovely to read aloud, and have an inherent lyricism and rhythm that makes it poetry and not just narration. At the same time, the poems avoid excessive repetition that could make them feel childish, and evoke imagery in quick bursts rather than long, drawn-out similes—“[…] fretful dreams/where they can’t crack open a mussel,/frantic as a student who’s forgotten/their locker combination.” (Applegate, 100) In terms of characterization, I was completely blown away. Applegate has a knack for anthropomorphizing and characterizing animals, but in Odder it’s particularly charming to me. Each otter has their own personality without becoming so complex or so human that it feels unrealistic or exaggerated—and isn’t it incredible that Applegate is making me say “oh, this is totally what an otter would say in this situation”? The otters are playful, quiet, nervous, brave, jaded, inquisitive, and so much more. Applegate’s narration for the titular Odder makes her playful in both dialogue and action, drawing her out from the page so that the furry protagonist feels as real as any human person telling us her story. The point of view in this book is very interesting to me; for the most part, we remain with Odder, seeing the world in her limited third-person with occasional asides to the limited views of other otters; a few poems in the first part of the book are from the very limited point of view of a hungry shark. More often, Applegate switches the narration to the viewpoint of the humans in the Monterey Bay Aquarium who rescue and rehabilitate otters, but the narration here is noticeably different from the point of view of the otters; when following humans, the narration is semi-omniscient, as if we’re viewing the humans from the outside. This skillfully allows us to view scenes and events from a more familiar point of view, while also keeping the reader slightly removed from the humans in the book—the focus is always the otters. In her author’s note at the close of the book, Applegate explains that the plot and characters of Odder are inspired by real events, blending together the stories of several otters that were part of the Monterey Bay Aquarium SORAC program in the late 90s and through the 2000s. That delights me no end; not only is Odder a fun, engaging story, with charming characters and lyrical verse, it’s informative without being “educational” or condescending. I adored this book. Now I can’t stop thinking about an ocean-themed book display with Odder front and center.

References:

Applegate, K. (2023). Odder. Welbeck Publishing Group. Excellence in poetry for children. National Council of Teachers of English. (2023, November 28). https://ncte.org/awards/excellence-in-poetry-for-children-living-american-poet/ Odder. Macmillan Publishers. (2021, July 20). https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250147431/odder

[whatodoo-denmark]

Cirkus Arena 2024 m. Bubber og Malene - Odder, Denmark | 29 May, 2024.

Find out more / Get your Tickets Now.

[lizardsfromspace]

Still confused and haunted by the Monster Factory golf ethnicity grids

[josephconrads]

Title: Odder

Author: Katherine Applegate

Rating: 5 out of 5

Review: I do not cry at books at all but this broke me. Like, I will be carrying with me a box of tissues if I ever read this again. It's told entirely through poems about the life of an otter who becomes part of the Monterey Bay aquariums otter rehabilitation program for otter pups and. As someone who has been to that aquarium many times, and knows exactly which otters she was based on. This hit me hard, it's cute and I wasn't expecting to get all emotional while reading this at all.

[mxihi]

the little guys who follow you

[crow-caller]

As you mightve heard there's a big database of books facebook/meta stole for its ai and yep, all three of mine were harvested

....which does beg a question of how. Good Angel and Bad End are self published. They must have taken it from amazon (unsurprising) or else direct from gumroad or itch.io because they are yknow. Pretty Obscure Indie Shit. They also got my aunts books but happy to report my Oma's books slipped their nets

[xxxsuperjazzxxx]

💜⚡️Brady-Lynn⚡️💜

Imo the series had a-lot of potential, a mix of fully animated portions and live action/rotoscoping scenes would have been great 😕

💚✨BONUS✨🩷

[catocappuccino]

Her favourite colour is yello w

[squilko]

[conceptofjoy]

i think its fascinating that dirk is seen as someone who wants control wrestled from him by fandom. the reason why he’s in control is because he wants so badly to have it in the first place. bro got illnesses i dont know the words of. its a simplification of what he’s got going on, in the instances where he has no control, he’s flipping out when he realizes it. always directs it inwards or to hal (who counts as himself in his eyes).

would he be happier if he got less on his plate? of course, he’s so high strung it cant be good for anyone. but a lack of substantial control over his life is something even jake remarks on when talking to jane. its “why hes just built like that (a weirdo)”. if he’s got nothing to do, he’s gonna find something else to solve.

homie has to be eased into domestication or we get what happened to candy dirk

[fun-twisted-tales]

I found the timeline of the original show to a new wish

Timmy was 8 when Vicky started to babysit him in the year 2000. He was 9 when he first got Cosmo and Wanda in 2001, 10 in the main series and turned 11 by “birthday bashed” taking place in 2003. Peri would have to been born in 2002.

Including his secret wish, he would be 60 in 2051 but was undone and went back to being 10 in 2002. When he made his wish but not quite when he got Cosmo and Wanda. He was 17 when Cosmo and Wanda left in 2009.

Cosmo and Wanda were assigned to Viv and Roy in 2010 and left in 2011, considering the very short run of the show.

They then retired for 10,000 years but experienced this through Doctor who rules. “Not a straight line but a big ball of timey wimey stuff.”

By the time they settled down to masquerade as humans, they’ve arrived in 2024. Timmy would be 32, Viv would be 29, and Roy would be 27

I’m not the best at math so correct me if I’m wrong

[lovelywayniac]

Fairly Oddtober 2024: Vicky

Why is she so pretty in Fairly Odder??? /vpos