OTIS SPOFFORD
by Beverly Cleary illustrated by Louis Darling
Perhaps not as spontaneous as her Henry Huggins and Ellen Tebbits stories, this still has some mighty funny moments and follows the infectious misdemeanours of Ellen's contemporary, Otis. Dressed for the part of a bull in a bull fight at a school festival, Otis gets rambunctious and is due for a "come-uppance" but he goes unpunished on that day and heads on toward bigger and better escapades. He throws wonderful spitballs in the classroom, gets chummy with a rat in the science lab, has the honor of collecting bugs for a local high school football hero-before he and Ellen- whom he bullies continually- finally have it out on the ice pond.