our first fourth grade novel :)

Sometimes you gotta shake things up and read a chidhood favorite. Otis Spofford is what some people may label a problem child....he's mischevious, impulsive but as the author Beverly Cleary famously said in an interview, children just want to be loved. Raised by a single mom, Otis is often left alone in the afternoons while his mother teaches dance. While the book is nearly 60 years old, Otis' antics and his classmates reactions are relatable, though there are a few culturally inappropriate scenes by todays standards....a Mexican Hat dance, and an incident where Otis pretends to be a "Bad Indian". However, looking at the story through the eyes of an adult and educator, I saw Otis as quite clever, possibly even gifted. When his teacher gives him consequences, or "comeuppance" as she puts it, you can sense she is doing it while biting her cheeks to prevent laughing at Otis' antics. Yes, some of Otis' antics would be considered bullying today, and if a teacher were to read this aloud to a class, they would want to have a discussion about it with the students. However, Beverly Cleary has a knack for capturing childhood timelessly, and Otis Spofford is no exception.

Albeit my reading time with Beverly Cleary’s 1951 Ellen Tebbits has indeed proven to be absolutely, utterly sweet and delightful, considering that even in Ellen Tebbits the character of Ellen Tebbits’ schoolmate (and nemesis) Otis Spofford is really and truly someone one generally totally loves to hate, is a boy who is often very specifically and deliberately naughty and aggravating, I have to admit that I was approaching the sequel to Ellen Tebbits, I was approaching Cleary’s 1953 Otis Spofford with more than a bit of trepidation, as I was definitely not really looking forward to an entire story primarily featuring Otis Spofford more than likely acting out and behaving like a major nasty and pest (and judging from how Otis Spofford is depicted by Beverly Cleary in Ellen Tebbits this was definitely quite likely to be the case).

And indeed, my trepidations with regard to Otis Spofford have been in my opinion and certainly at least partially justified. For while as an older adult reader, I do appreciate that with Otis Spofford, Beverly Cleary has (and in the 1950s at that) depicted a boy whose basic lack of impulse control could very well be signalling some issues with potential ADHD, my inner child has equally rather found Otis Spofford’s escapades and his behaviour for the most part deliberate and calculatingly mean-spirited, even bullying (and indeed, even when Otis cuts off Ellen’s hair and seems to act as though he had no control over this) and thus not so much a case of inborn behaviour syndromes but mostly just bad manners, bad/absent parenting and an inherent streak of pure and contrary hostility (and which the fact that in Otis Spofford Beverly Cleary clearly describes Otis’ mother as ineffective and the father as totally absent makes worse).

Therefore, I have from an emotional point of departure simply not found Otis Spofford all that much a reading pleasure, because there is just TOO MUCH of the main character acting, being such a total and utter jerk and horror. And indeed, the ONLY reason why Otis Spofford still rates as three and not as two stars is that I do enjoy the realism of Beverly Cleary’s textual representation and that I indeed love, love, love how Ellen and also to point her friend Austine are finally able to actively counter Otis’ bullying and to pay him back for his teasing and vileness.

Oh and furthermore, finally, if any parent or teacher is in fact considering Otis Spofford for their children or for their students, it most certainly needs to be mentioned that Beverly Cleary unfortunately includes a few instances of reasonable for time and place but still uncomfortable ethnicity and culture based datedness in her presented narrative, and that this does in my opinion most definitely need to be discussed. And yes, in particular the episode in Otis Spofford where Otis chops off Ellen's hair is rather more than a trifle problematic since it basically deals with Otis and his classmates "playing Indian" (which in itself is not only considered very much offensive and denigrating by many if not most Native Americans, but in Otis Spofford it also means the children using such now considered derogatory monikers like Squaw and having Otis Spofford pretend to "scalp" Ellen Tebbits).

As I was reading this book, Otis reminded me of each of my sons. He likes school except for the learning part. He's always trying to stir up some excitement. It was amusing seeing what scheme he'd come up with next.

Admittedly the ending was fun, but I’m not loving Cleary outside of the Ramona books. This was was definitely dated.

Otis reminds me a lot of Gwendolyn from 54 Things Wrong With Gwendolyn Rogers, actually, and while I found him annoying I also understood him. Where the book failed me in this is that Otis never grows even a little, which is fine since that's what she wanted to write; I just found it boring. The thing that brings this book down the most, though, is that there's a chapter literally called Otis, the Unfriendly Indian and the racism gets worse from there.

Fun book. Never read it before (listened to it actually).

Delightful book yet again:)

Children's literature, chapter book - © 1953 Third grade reading level, third grade+ interest level
Adventure of Otis Spofford, a fourth grader, and his classmates, including Ellen Tebbits, his crush.

More entertaining than Ellen Tibbits, Otis does work better if you read Ellen first. The story develops well with the "major conflict" not being that major at all. This book good really be used to teach about teasing and bullying, but the audience would need to be receptive - which they generally aren't. Maybe better for those being bullied really. Found the ending abrupt.

Beverly Cleary‘s writing brought me SO much joy when I was young. I stumbled upon a first edition of this book and was in tears - it was the exact same edition I took out of my school’s library when I first read it.

Yes it’s dated but man oh man, did Cleary ever understand kids!!

One thing that surprised me was her depiction of Otis as being raised by his mother with zero mention of his father. I feel like that would have been a huge risk when this was published. Even without explanation, it was clear that the absence of a second parent was hard on both of them.

That sobering thought aside, it was a wonderful romp and I loved Louis Darling’s illustrations.

3.5 liked the back n forth