Peanut is a naked mole rat. Otis is a hairy guinea pig. Together, these two guys are the best of friends.
There are 3 stories in this 2024 release from Owl Kids. The first tale sees Peanut gifting his best buddy with a very special cake. Only Otis doesn't want to eat the cake until there's a special occasion to enjoy the very special dessert. Unable to come up with a special enough occasion to eat cake, Peanut makes another one, especially for days when nothing special happens. Thus begins a week of unlimited sweet treats!
Story number 2 is a Peanut solo tale. He's decided to grow some strawberries from seeds his sister Pearl gifted to Peanut. At first I thought this was a story about how long and boring it can be to wait for your favorite crops to grow. But then we see Peanut remembering a special time with his sister and he starts to get sad. All of a sudden I'm feeling gut punched. Did Pearl die?
Surely, a adorable animal series such as this doesn't have the sister passing away! This is book 2 of the Otis and Peanut series. Maybe she moved away in the previous volume. And then there's story #3.
In the last story, Otis is sharing his scrapbook with Peanut. There's a lot of pictures of the boys with Pearl on a trip to the fair. Otis comments that Pearl was feeling good on the day during the trip. Uh-oh once more. I'm seriously thinking Pearl has died.
The last segment continues with Peanut inspired to create his own time capsule of memories. Only he doesn't want to make a scrapbook. Peanut decides to make a memory box; inside of which there's a picture of sister Pearl with the words underneath ' In Memory.'
Oh my God. They creators of this series killed off the adorable Peanut's big sister! I was not expecting that! From the cover, I was expecting some hilarious adventures between a pair of pals on par with Big Dog/Little Dog or Toad and Frog. Having a naked mole rat (in other words, he's hairless) as a character was so unique and inviting for me to give this book a read. I wasn't expecting a PTSD flashback of my 6th birthday!
November 24th, 1984. Big Bird tries very hard to find shopkeeper Mr. Hooper. It's up to the Sesame Street gang to explain to Big Bird the concept of death. Big Bird's friend isn't coming back. Oh, that episode just gets me in the feels. Even though I was in first grade, teachers were advised to watch the show to help children understand what it means when someone dies. And I had to watch it on my birthday! And then I had to go home and talk about how the show made me feel with my parents and other relatives!
That's all how I felt reading this book. It's also apparently how I'll feel if I read the first and third book (due out in 2025) in this series. Creators Naseem Hrab and Kelly Collier have crafted this series to help young children be able to understand death and cope through the loss through the many stages of grief including mourning and finding acceptance of one's loss of a loved one.
I thought the art was just adorable. I just love Peanut's front teeth and Otis seems like an adorable fella with a giant heart! I'm glad Peanut and Otis have each other to lean on. If the recommended young reader in your life between ages 6 and 8 read this book, I hope their parents and guardians will be there for them to lean on because this book sure does dregs up some sad memories, difficult topics and hard questions... And I'm in my mid 40s!
Worth Consuming!
Rating: 8 out of 10 stars because of the unexpected shock of the characters period of mourning for a good friend and how it hit me out of the blue!
