My grandson and I have been making our way through all of the Beverly Cleary novels. This one was written about 60 years ago. Some of it is funny, but some of it tells how far we have come in being sensitive to violence and bullying, understanding cultures other than the middle class white bread brand. This was obtained in one of the "Little Free Libraries" around here because it has been removed from one of the local public libraries. My 6 year old grandson found it funny. I think it doesn't stand the test of time. My daughter found parts of it repulsive as an example for young children. I think B. Cleary was trying to tell from the boy's point of view, which in her mind gave permission for what would now be deemed unacceptable behavior. I have a vision of a little thought bubble over her head with the phrase "Boys will be boys!" in it and a cute smile on the faces of all the characters in the book.

Maybe it’s because I did an audiobook or maybe it’s because the book is very dated from my perspective now, but it was really annoying me. I used to love Otis, and Ellen Tebbits and pretty much all Beverly Cleary books when I was a kid, but yesterday Otis was really grating on my nerves. Lots of outdated cultural stuff that was normal and not considered offensive when the book was written but is cringe in 2022. And Otis is just kind of a d@@@.

This book was fun to read to my boys!

Surprisingly relatable. Beverly Cleary does a good job writing for kids. She understands them remarkably well. I like the perspective change from the last book to this one. In the last book, Otis was a despicable character but he's quite understandable and lovable in this one.

Read-aloud with my 2nd and 4th grade boys. Not our favorite by Cleary. My 4th grader liked The Mouse books better. I like the Henry Huggins books better, too.

ETA: Otis Spofford is an only child of a single mom who runs a dance studio to support herself and her kid. He is mostly unsupervised, poorly disciplined, and looking for ”excitement" aka attention. I think Cleary generally does a good job of showing how he loses the respect of his friends through a lot of his "hijinks" and that was a good thing to talk about with my kids, even though he doesn't seem to "learn his lesson" by the end of the book.

A classic Beverly Cleary character and escapades.

This was a DNF. Otis was too mischievous. While my kids got a kick out of it, this was definitely over the top and would encourage "stirring up a little excitement" as Otis liked to say.

Other than the expected outdated references that have not aged well, my 7yo and 8yo and I thoroughly enjoyed this silly story about a silly boy. Entertaining and fun.

Since Ellen Tebbits is a favorite read from my childhood, I got a hold of a copy of this companion book to read with my grandson. While Otis may at first seem less than lovable, consider his home life in comparison to a character like Henry Huggins.

Otis lives in an apartment with a single mother who owns a dance studio and he doesn't have a dog. Henry's hone on Klickitat Street would provide a sense of stability that Otis does not have in his toolbox. Otis goes about his day seeking to cause excitement. He is a button pusher.

Nowadays he would be a candidate for ADD meds. Would such a remedy be helpful to Otis? I am not a medical expert, but I have three boys who exhibited varying symptoms of ADD. Only one benefited from meds. All three are married and in service careers. God's grace is clear in their paths to the present.

If you decide to pick this one up, do keep in mind that this is a book from 1953. Otis and his class do not look at activities like a Mexican Hat Dance or "playing Indian" in the same way as we do in our more enlightened time. Consider this a slice of life and enjoy the timeless themes that run throughout this classic read.

J and I were able to read much of this in person since we are visiting our son and family in Latvia this month. Both of us chose our favorite chapters as is our practice. J chose "Otis and the Thirty Bugs" when Otis and his friend Stewy compete to collect thirty bugs each for football star Hack Battles on. They consider it their duty to the success of the Zachary P. Taylor High School football season. My favorite chapter was "Otis's Scientific Experiment" in which the class feeds two rats drastically different diets to show the value of consuming nutritious meals. What will happen if someone sneaks into the classroom to alter the experiment?

Our next read will be a break from Beverly Cleary to enjoy Who Was Theodore Roosevelt?.

Otis is an annoyance to Ellen. My oldest son really enjoyed listening to Otis's adventures. I thought the ending was lacking in character improvement. However I discussed it with my kids, and it was interesting to hear their thoughts.

Otis Spofford is the companion book to 1951's Ellen Tebbits. Unlike Ellen, who is mild-mannered and well-behaved, Otis is a spirited troublemaker who is always looking for ways to make his school day more interesting. Throughout this book, Otis causes trouble everywhere he goes. He doesn't quite believe his teacher's warnings that he will someday get his comeuppance until one day he does something to Ellen that might just be unforgivable.

What is most interesting to me about this book is how completely terrible Otis's behavior really is. When I think of Beverly Cleary, I usually envision sympathetic characters like Ramona, who try hard, but make mistakes, or whose naughty behavior is a result of misunderstanding and frustration rather than true malice. Otis, though, almost borders on unlikable, as he terrorizes his classmates and teacher, all without much notice from his single mother, the dance instructor. Cleary also doesn't go to any great lengths to redeem Otis. The best she gives us is a chance for Ellen and her friend Austine to get a little bit of revenge, and even that doesn't seem to impress upon him how obnoxious and destructive he is. I know there are kids like Otis, and I think Cleary understands perfectly what makes them tick, but I'm not sure about the story's willingness to basically let him off the hook in the end.

The other problem with this book by contemporary standards is the treatment of American Indians. There is a chapter in the book in which Otis's class is reading about Indians in their readers, and Otis is bored because all of the Indians are friendly and do not behave as they do in the movies he has seen. The vocabulary used in this section is very much a product of its time, and I think it is important to understand that context before becoming offended. Surely Beverly Cleary meant no harm, and there is some great commentary about the lameness of basal readers buried within this chapter that I really enjoyed. Still, there is a lot of talk about scalping and descriptions of kids making fun of Indians that might require some careful explanation and discussion for curious contemporary kids.

As Beverly Cleary books go, this one feels like quite the anomaly, and it is probably the only one I would suggest parents pre-read before handing it to a child. Though it might be useful in helping kids understand why some of their classmates might enjoy misbehaving, the complete lack of a moral lesson at the end of the book could also easily send mixed messages. It's definitely the kind of book that will work well for some families, but not well at all for others.

This review also appears on my blog, Read-at-Home Mom.

Otis is a handful. He reminds me quite a bit of my nephew. He likes to be the center of attention and he likes to stir up trouble, or fun is the way he sees it. I might have enjoyed this book more because it does remind me of the nephew. I would love to read this to him, but I don't know that he is interested right now. They started a Harry Potter re-read and you can't compete with that.

Otis spends the book pulling tricks on his friends the girls in his class. I love the class play they put on and Otis finds a way to steal the show. He then proceeds to mess with Ellen Tebbits over and over again until he goes to far and cuts a bit of her hair off. This turns the class against him. During the snow day he finds that having fun at other's expense can be lonely. He does get his comeuppance.

Otis is a smart kid who likes making trouble. He sits on the top of the pyramid until he can't figure out how he fell off that apex. The book is full of humor and being around kids as much as I have, it's very true to who kids are. The problems are simpler back in the 50s, but the kids are the same.

Beverly is a genius writing for this grade level about kids. Her characters still work today despite some outdated language and thought. She makes this writing look easy. I would love to see a school put on this as a play or even Netflix to make a movie about this. I wish she had made a book or 2 more about Otis and Ellen.