Otto: The Story of a Mirror

Otto: The Story of a Mirror by Bahrampour, Ali. hardcover edition. ISBN: 9780374270780.

Otto is a mirror who lives and works at Topper’s Hat Store. His job is to stand still and reflect the customers as they try on hats. This is tedious work, especially for a mirror who dreams of traveling around the world to exotic destinations. When Otto can’t resist playing a joke on Mr. Topper’s best customer, Curly Joe, mayhem ensues, but by a stroke of weird fate, Otto finds himself headed for a better place. The preposterous humor of Otto is taken a step further in the gleefully subversive watercolor illustrations. Of this delectably offbeat debut, Maurice Sendak writes: “Ali Bahrampour . . . has rifled through the treasure trove of American and European picture books of the last half-century and cooked up something fresh and delightful. Otto shows remarkable promise.”