I loved this book as a kid, but reading it aloud now to grandchildren, the first chapter involves a bullfight, which was sort of horrible to even think about explaining, and then the usual antiquated gender roles...unless they are animal books, it's hard to avoid them. Does explain how we internalized all the notions about women and men before we were old enough to even consider.

เป็นเล่มต่อจาก "เธอยอมก่อนได้มั๊ย"
แต่เปลี่ยนตัวแสบให้กลายเป็นตัวเอกค่ะ
แม้จะเป็นเล่มที่เขาเป็นพระเอกเอง แต่โอติสก็ยังคงแสบไม่เลิกรา
เล่มนี้อ่านสนุกตรงที่เอลเลนเองก็โต้กลับได้ไม่แพ้กันค่ะ
อ่านเล่มนี้แล้วรักเธอมากขึ้นไปอีก
มิตรภาพระหว่างคนแกล้งกับคนถูกแกล้งเรื่องนี้น่ารักดีค่ะ :)

Listened to it with my kids and it gave them lots of ideas......

A fun read- the first chapter was my favorite!! Otis is quite the character!

Ugh. Otis is mean. His mother is clueless yucky.

One paper back

Not my favourite Cleary story, but still good. You can see how schools have changed; kids no longer stand up at their desks to read or "recite", in third grade they have usually gotten past "Telling Time" into serious schoolwork. The "Mexican Fiesta" echoes the "Good Nieghbour Policy" current in the US at the time the book was published.

I went to school with a boy named Otis, and he too was the kind that liked to "stir up some excitement." My classmate Otis was dislexic before such things were really understood so he was treated as "lazy", and used the class-clown image to deflect expectations he couldn't meet. Otis Spofford will do anything for a little fun, and likes to take control of the classroom situations, such as the "bullfight dance", to place himself at the centre of the action. But it doesn't always go his way, as we find out when he decides to throw spitballs. Miss Gitler is the image of my teachers in the sixties--the older woman who's been teaching for decades, and combines her "motherly" attitude toward her students with strict discipline. She expects her students to be "cooperative" (ie obedient) and "good citizens". I remember reading this book as a kid and learning the word "comeuppance"--meaning you will get what's coming to you!

Again, there's no Mr Spofford, nor any explanation as to where he went. Did he die? Or is Mrs Valerie Todd Spofford a "grass widow" before divorce was acceptable? She certainly wasn't the typical hausfrau of the time, since she has to work giving those dance classes to the children of her betters; she's also totally disorganised, using her kid's only 2 T-shirts as paint rags, and only ironing his clothes when he's going shirtless. There's even mention of "clumps of dust on the floor." Much closer to the reality of many kids than the perfect-family stories of the time such as *glurge* Trixie Belden and Co. Cleary set out to write realistic stories, and they are, for the most part.

It had been a good forty years since the last time I read this, and I still cheered when Ellen learns to fight back against Otis' constant teasing. I was given the ridiculously useless advice "Don't react, he just does it to get a rise out of you." My mother should have known better, she raised six boys, she should have realised what stupid counsel this was (particularly when dealing with the bullying handed out by her own sons). If I had had a child, particularly a girl, I would have given her just the opposite: Make a stand, fight back, yell. Bullies may be cowards, but if you don't fight back, they will continue to hassle you. The line of least resistance leads nowhere. This I know from experience.

This poor kid needs some Ritalin. Otis is very rambunctious, but sweet boy. He gets bored very easily, and he picks on the girl he has a crush on. My favorite part of the book is when the class does an experiment with the rats eating food from the cafeteria versus eating white bread and soda. Otis really grows to love the rat that is eating bread and soda whom he names Mutt. I like how Otis wanted to take care of Mutt. He even skipped lunch to feed Mutt because he thought he was not getting enough food. I also like how Otis and Ellen developed a friendship.

Honestly, not a fan. Otis & his friends were rude & disrespectful most of the book, even my young kids picked up on it.

I had to verbally edit quite a bit of the chapter “Otis the Unfriendly Indian”, which made reading aloud challenging. I don’t think my kids connected with the main character as deeply as some others, but Otis reminds me of some students I remember fondly. ❤️

It pains me to give Beverly Cleary such a low rating, but I really did not enjoy this book and had a hard time wanting to finish reading it my children. I could see that she was trying to write a relatable character in Otis and to have him get up to antics boys could relate to, but in the end he just came across as mean spirited and bullying. Then in the end when he "got his comeuppance" from one of the kids he picked on, it was done in a shaming way that I can't get behind even for a character as unlikable as Otis. Now I think we will read a Ramona book to wash the taste of this one out of our mouths.

Awwwright. As much as I was peeved at Otis in the previous book, well, all is forgiven. Otis has wormed his way into my heart, and I'm much more sympathetic to him here. This is, of course, Cleary's genius at work. I might like Otis better than anyone but Henry.

The narration was especially lovely. There were some glaringly dated parts, but one remembers when this was written, winces, and moves on.