Otto and the Flying Twins

Charlotte Haptie (author)

Hodder Children's Books, UK: 2002; 303pp

ISBN: 0340854766

Genres: adventure, fantasy

Issues: change, identity, prejudice

‘If your sisters learn to fly, then it is obvious that things are going to be different and adjustments will have to be made.' Well, yes, one would think so!

This story is set in the City of Trees, a place hidden inside a mountain where Outsiders are unable to visit. It was set up by the Karmidee, the magical folk of many talents who wanted a place where they could be themselves without the danger of being turned into freaks at a circus or guinea-pigs for scientists. But when the mountain cracks, humans, outsiders, normal people find them - ‘They found something beautiful and extraordinary and they wanted it all for themselves.' The Karmidee, with their strange gifts, move onto the mudflats where they live in poverty, despised by the Normals for the very differences that made the City special in the first place. Some years later, however, the mountain mysteriously closes again and the City is protected once more from the outside world and life settles into a routine.

Change is coming, prejudice is brewing and the people will be divided again. It all starts at the FireBox Launderette, when Otto and his father, Albert, are doing their washing - except that the driers are ‘not working due to illness'. Which, as Otto remarks, is strange, as machines don't get ill. He then discovers that the heat behind the driers is actually provided by a dragon - a dragon that seems to be trying to bite his father's leg off. Although he knows of the ‘magicos', Otto never thought to find his own life so directly touched by them. But what other explanation is there as to why his little sisters are suddenly floating around on the ceiling? And why is his father suddenly spending so long in the library archives, tracing ancient Karmidee documents? And what can Otto do to protect his family from city officials when his grandmother turns into a unicorn?

This delightful story will appeal to younger readers as an action-packed fantasy adventure but it is much more than that. The deeper level of the narrative examines significant personal and spiritual concepts such as the talent and one's responsibility to use it, the need for honesty and openness in relationships, tolerance of individual differences and the destructive nature of fear. While it will not have the wider appeal of writers such as Emily Rodda and J.K.Rowling, Haptie's Otto books will attract the more sophisticated young fantasy reader.