Etta and Otto and Russell and James

by Emma Hooper

[Beth C.]

What do you do when you're losing your way? When the "you" that you've always known starts becoming fainter and fainter, and eventually will disappear altogether? Well, if you're Etta, you go walkabout. You head out, on your own, determined to walk to see the ocean. No matter that this journey is hundreds of miles, or that you could forget yourself along the way. You just put a piece of paper with your name and relatives in your pocket, pack up some food, lace up your boots, and start walking. And if, along the way, you meet a coyote you call James who keeps you company? So much the better.

Etta and Otto and Russell and James is such a lovely book. The back and forth between Etta's journey (and Otto's, and Russell's) and the past as they were growing up and enduring the war was so well done. All three of these characters share the story, as they have shared *their* stories since they were much younger. Because, as Etta says, everyone has a story. But sometimes, it just gets too buried to be easily found. But these three, they have their stories and they live them and grow in them with such grace and such heart. As a reader, it's nice to come across a book that is so endearing that you just want it to keep going, to continue to run into the characters as you would a friendly neighbor across the street. This is just such a book.

Emma Hooper has done quite well in her debut, and I wish her the best with the rest of her writing. I can only hope that they are just as lovely as this one.