Otto and the Magic Potatoes

by William Pène du Bois

The Baron is sure if he can study closely a dog two and a half stories tall, he can improve the quality of his enormous potatoes and roses.

Genres: Childrens

48 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1970

About the author

William Pène du Bois was an American writer and illustrator of books for young readers. He is best known for The Twenty-One Balloons, published in April 1947 by Viking Press, for which he won the 1948 Newbery Medal. As illustrator he was twice a runner-up for the Caldecott Medal.

The Twenty-One Balloons is the work by Pène du Bois that WorldCat reports most widely held in participating libraries, by a wide margin. His other most widely held works are five books written by others, which he illustrated (below), and the two Caldecott Honor picture books, which he also wrote.

From 1953 to 1960, Pène du Bois was art editor of The Paris Review, working alongside founder and editor George Plimpton.

Reviews

[Eric Carr · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a very strange book about an oversized dog who is kidnapped by a duke, stabbed to see if he is full of water, and then uses potatoes filled with water to put out a fire. However the book itself is fun and interesting with an interesting method used for delivering the information, there will be a page of writing and then a few pages following filled with illustrations. I quite enjoyed this change of pace as it allowed for large full page illustrations which I quite enjoyed. The story itself comes to a satisfying all be it odd conclusion but I think it is an enjoyable book for elementary age kids.