Kate diCamillo is one of my favorite contemporary authors, and she has had a great year. Ferris was probably my favorite middle grade novel of 2024, and now Orris and Timble:The Beginning is set to be my favorite new easy reader of 2024, and maybe my favorite series, if the other two books in the projected trilogy are as good as this first one.
“The old barn was abandoned. Only Orris lived there.” So the story begins. Orris is a rat, a solitary soul who has made a nest for himself and filled it with his favorite recycled treasures. He’s happy and seemingly self-satisfied.
But Orris is a rat with a conscience, personified in the picture of a king on a sardine can who looks Orris in the eye and reminds him to “make the good and noble choice.” And when a snowy owl, Timble, is caught in a trap and begs for help, Orris has a choice to make. Will he make the good and noble choice? Or will he stay safe in his own little nest and ignore the needs, and the danger, of the world outside?
This book, with short chapters, and very few words on each page, reminded me of the Frog and Toad books by Arnold Lobel. The story itself is simple and straightforward, a mirroring of the story of Androcles and the Lion, but there’s a subtext that speaks to adults as well as children. It’s a story and a subtext about friendship and adventure and choices and risk taking, but I won’t go much farther than that. You and your children can pull your own ideas and images from the book.
The illustrations by Carmen Mok are adequate, but not spectacular. The charm is in the story. The vocabulary in the book is not controlled, and the author uses some moderately difficult words. Early readers will gain confidence after sounding out words such as “windowsill” and “disappeared” and “butterscotch”. The story itself should carry readers who are beginning to enjoy chapter books right along to the ending, which is lovely in its “openendedness”.
“Orris?” says the owl.
“Yes?” says the rat.
“Are we friends?” says the owl.
“Yes, Timble,” says the rat after a long silence, “we’re friends.”
“But that’s not the end of the story,” says Timble.
“No,” says Orris, “it’s the beginning.”