My Brother Otto by Ingrid Laguna

Title: My Brother Otto

Author: Ingrid Laguna

Genre: Contemporary

Publisher: Text Publishing

Published: 3^rd February 2026

Format: Paperback

Pages: 176

Price: $14.99

Synopsis: Quinn’s not happy about all the fuss her mum and Alex are making about the new baby. She’s sick of their excitement. She likes things the way they are: just the three of them, and Disco, her lop-eared rabbit. She doesn’t want a baby brother. And she definitely doesn’t want to share her bedroom with him.

But when Otto is born three months early things change more than anyone could have expected. Quinn meets her little brother in the hospital neonatal intensive care unit surrounded by tubes and beeping machines. And she becomes the best big sister any baby brother could have.

My Brother Otto is a story about family, love and sadness that delves into an experience of heartbreaking loss with sensitivity, warmth and the comfort that memories can hold.

~*~

My Brother Otto is the new middle grade novel from Ingrid Laguna about becoming a big sister, and grief. Eleven-year-old Quinn is uneasy about her new baby brother coming. Half her room is becoming his, everything is about him, and her mum and Alex seem more interested in him than what’s going on with her. And she’s trying to be part of things, but they’re not letting her.

She also likes things the way they are with the three of them and her lop-eared rabbit, Disco. But things change very quickly when Otto comes three months early. It’s weeks of the NICU, special care, ups and downs, infections and Quinn feeling invisible. She wants to share her playlist and the writing competition at school. Even Quinns focus is shifting to Otto, because she wants to be the best big sister she can be.

My Brother Otto is a heartbreaking and sensitive look at family life and its unpredictability. Otto’s fragile life drives much of the novel, and Quinn is navigating wanting to care for him, and feeling like she doesn’t matter anymore. Like she is giving everything up for him. Her room. Her space. Her presence. Disco. It’s a lot for anyone to cope with, let alone an eleven-year-old who is finding the planned changes and sudden changes very hard to cope with. And she wants to convince her mum and Alex that her room is really not the right place for him when he does come home.

The tender emotion used in this novel shows that premature babies, illness and hospitals take a toll on everyone affected. Everyone has feelings and reactions, and it’s never clear how people will react and how. Amongst it all, Quinn finds she struggles to confide in the kids at school. Raf is just annoying and she never knows how to respond to him, and her best friend, Mem, doesn’t realise just how serious things are. She’s focused on her writing and caring for Otto, and she loves him more than anything. More than she ever thought she would.  

It’s books like these that explore grief and love, the quiet books that often have the most to say. They’re big stories and big feelings but told in a way that anyone can understand and relate to. Most importantly, they’re written so that younger readers can understand premature birth, grief or death, and all the upheavals that everyone can experience throughout their lives. I think they often write about these issues better than some adult books. The children’s books don’t meander or get bogged down in intricacies that can deviate from the message or theme of the book. My Brother Otto has its intricacies and depths that are communicated simply and evocatively.

This makes it moving and emotional with a depth that is worthy of awards. It is a book that reminds readers about humanity and that we are allowed to have complicated emotions. We don’t have to feel a certain way to please people or to make other people feel at ease. In fact, pushing down our emotions can make things harder. But Ingrid’s latest book does a wonderful job of getting these balances right and illustrating the different ways we all respond to grief. It’s okay to be emotional. It’s okay to be overwhelmed. It’s okay to feel numb or like you don’t know what to do. Everyone responds to tragedy differently. The book is filled with heart and love, and an important book for people to read, to understand how they can help people like Otto’s family. A brilliant and touching book that will hopefully be widely read.