In honour of the wonderful Miss Beverly Cleary's 100th birthday I decided to try one of her marvelous books I had not read as a kid. I had read and reread her essential Henry Huggins & Ramona Quimby books so I decided to try one of her lesser-known gems. This tale of a loveable little freckle faced rabble-rouser named Otis Spofford which was a sequel to Beverly's Ellen Tebbits and seemed to be part of another perhaps companion series to the Huggins books which Miss Cleary did not continue after this second book. This is a shame because more stories in this series could've been a lot of fun. It was impossible not to like Otis who was mischievious and rebellious yet showed flashes of a kind heart. He just liked to create excitement which he does a plenty in these hilarious chapters. From aggravating his teacher with spitballs to causing mayhem during the class's Mexican fiesta there's never a dull moment with Otis who especially delights in tormenting the squeaky clean, responsible Ellen Tebbits. There's a sense (as generally happens with most boys his age) that he bothers her so much 'cos he actually likes her and there's a moment in a touching chapter involving a classroom rat where the two actually bond a bit. Otis is a city kid, raised by a single mom and there's an air of streetwise about him. He sports a leather jacket & a rabbit's foot and comes across as a very interesting character in 1953 children's fiction. His attitude and style in many ways predates Rock & Roll rebelliousness which had yet to explode into the mainstream for another year or two. Beverly Cleary seemed rather ahead of the curve with this character. In some ways the dynamic between clean responsible Ellen and rough rowdy Otis seems like a prototype for the dynamic between Beezus & Ramona Quimby and how the two sisters would clash sometimes and I wonder if Beverly used some of that as she developed the Ramona series (The girls had been introduced in Henry Huggins already but had yet to become fleshed out characters). It receives 4 stars instead of 5 because of one chapter involving killing insects like ladybugs in a jar for a science project which I found to be rather gruesome and parents who think their child may be bothered by a chapter like that should beware and also because of a chapter where Ellen seems to go too far in getting revenge on Otis and it comes across as unpleasantly cruel. Still those chapters aside these were great little stories and it's a shame more wasn't written about the adventures of Otis, Ellen and their friends because it would've been lots of fun !

Ohhh, Otis. A little boy who wants to make trouble, get noticed, & be the center of attention at all costs. His mom is pretty absent, his landlord treats him like a nuisance, & his classmates are tired of his tricks. Clearly his teacher telling him that he will get his “comeupppance” isn’t a great way to improve his behavior.

This was our first disappointing Beverly Cleary book. Otis has serious social issues....

This kid. Poor Mrs. Spofford and Mrs. Gitler. I remember loving the Ramona series when I was little. I was not as enthralled with Otis. H had a hard time connecting.

This might not be the best reading for a mischievous boy but it is superbly written and highly entertaining. My children loved it.

What a downer. I was really hoping for some character development and growth but it just wasn’t there.

2.5 stars. I just re-read Ellen Tebbits (which was a childhood favorite of mine) to see how it held up and realized I had never read this one. And now I realize that's probably because as a young girl I wasn't interested in reading about a silly boy. LOL not as an adult either. I was happy to see Ellen and Augustine give Otis his comeuppance, but it most definitely reads like a 1950s book about a little boy.

I read this a long time ago, back in the late Sixties or early Seventies. Schools had already changed some from the one depicted (the book seems to be set when it was written) but a lot of things I recognized. And I recognized Otis Spofford instantly.

I had a similar PITA in my life from kindergarten clear up to 12th grade, but a lot of what he did was a lot less humorous than Otis' antics. Even when I was reading this, though, I could see why Otis was the way he was. He apparently didn't have a father in his life, his mother had to work an awful lot and didn't seem to have much time for him or much of an idea of how to deal with him, and he was apparently poorer than the kids he went to school with. I didn't like Otis Spofford much, and was glad he wasn't in my class at school...but I felt sorry for him, too.

Seriously considering writing an alternate version where Ellen and Austine kill him at the lake for what he did to Ellen’s hair. But they didn’t mean to y’know they just couldn’t stop once they started! ¯_(ツ)_/¯

MY favorite part was when Otis was sorry he had thrown spit balls over the classroom. My least favorite part was when Otis cut Ellen's hair.

I like Ramona and Henry better.

Dang; Cleary sure did know how to knock 'em out. Unfortunately the Mexican folk dance segment and the references to Indians date the book, but the multi-culturism is not an issue. Otis' poor impulse control is. Even at the end, when his friends cut him and he begins to learn a bit of empathy, he shows no real remorse; he's irrepressible.

I would love to discuss this with children. Do they think Otis should be on Ritalin or in Special Ed? Do they think he's a bully? How would they cope with him if he were a classmate? How might they help him if they were his parent or teacher?