This book is all about a young boy who gets in trouble alot. He always seems to enjoy to annoy Ellen Tebbits. His mother is a dance teacher at the dance school close to his home and has no time for him. In the middle of the book his class does a experiment including two mice. At the end of the experiment Ellen get to take one home but gives it to Otis instead. I thought this book was exciting and I was not able to put it down. Even though i told you some of the story get it and read the whole thing.

Otis Spofford is a boy just looking for a little excitement. To Otis excitement means upstaging a playacting toreador, shooting spitballs at classmates and even his teacher, sabotaging a class experiment, upstaging a friend while helping the local football hero, and especially chasing and teasing the very prim and proper Ellen Tebbitts. Otis' classmates and teacher warn him that someday he will get his comeuppance for his antics. When Otis takes his teasing of Ellen too far then his comeuppance finally happens.

Beverly Cleary's "Otis Spofford" was one of the funniest books I ever read. I particularly enjoyed Otis' comments on how "dopey" the characters in the books he had to read for school acted. Ms. Cleary obviously wrote "Otis Spofford" for children who felt the same way about reading as Otis did. Otis is no dope and non-readers will love him for it!

Some of Ms. Cleary's older books are sometimes dismissed as being "quaint" or out of date with their 50's settings and families (father works and mom stays at home.) "Otis Spofford" was written in 1961, but Otis has a single mother who owns her own business and they live in an apartment. In some ways Ms. Cleary was ahead of her time; but there is no denying that Otis is a wildboy of the 50's. "Otis Spofford" is an extremely readable and hilarious book featuring the wonderful drawings of illustrator Louis Darling. (I've always preferred Mr. Darling's idealized illustrations of very 50's looking children (the girls in dresses or rolled up pants with moptop hairstyles, the boys in canvas hightop sneakers and bristled haircuts) which are in Ms. Cleary's older books to the illustrations of her more recent books which make some of the characters look rather ugly- Ramona is so much cuter when drawn by Louis Darling than Alan Tiegrin.)

I recommend all lovers of children's books to read this captivating classic of the exploits of a mischievous young lad, as only a genius such as Beverly Cleary can explain. It made me want to relive my childhood days!

Once I started to read the book, I just could not put it down. Cleary contiuously maintained my interest throughout the reading of the text. I am sure children in the age range of 9-12 will be able to relate to the title character, Otis Spofford.