Otis gets bullish (JE # 1)

Otis Spofford always wants to "stir a little something up," and his
class's Mexican folk dance for the PTA is his opportunity! His teacher, Mrs. Gitler, assigns him to be one half of the bull, along with Stewy, who has the misfortune to be the rear half. But Otis
has in mind a trick he'll play on George, the matador whom the restless bull perceives to be a bit too satisfied with his role. Instead of allowing himself to be defeated by George, as he is meant to do, adventure-seeking Otis decides to charge and get the matador from behind! He is even more pleased with himself when the PTA audience laughs uproariously, even though Mrs. Gitler has promised she will "deal with" him later. But Otis doesn't count on George's retribution, which includes a few paddles with his sword on Stewy's bottom! By fiesta's end, both George and Stewy are upset with Otis, who finds himself chased home after school.


Perhaps many small boys have a bit of Otis in them. As I read this book to my son, he performed some of the same tricks Otis himself did: pawing the ground, snorting like a bull and charging the air ahead of him. Although we often read at bedtime, like tonight, it wasn't in this instance the most opportune time because we both had been cooped up all day between the school cancellation and roads being dangerous and some even closed. Still, Adam did pretty good for the circumstance, and redirection was still not so hard. He likes to look at the words as I read, because he is always on the lookout for words he knows, such as like, the, love, go, fun, to, too, mommy, boy and toy.

Otis liked to tease George by singing out, "Toreador!" and Adam wanted to join in. He sung out the word and picked it out from the page, spelling it as he pointed. And as Otis, walking onto the playground and discovering his enormous audience, starts to cheer to himself, Adam informed me that now the boy would have many more people to give him attention, although the teacher wasn't going to like it. Interestingly enough, we had just a few minutes before been discussing negative attention, thanks to a boy in his kindergarten class who engages in it frequently (and used to draw Adam into his antics).

As we finished up the chapter, Otis was raring to escape the school--not wanting to stick around for the punch and cookies, nor the outcome of George and Stewy's warnings to "just wait"--and Adam was rather ancy as well. It had been too sedentary a day and although he asks questions and engages himself, he doesn't seem to take to this book quite as much as he did with Ribsy, by the same author. There may be a "danger" factor (Adam is afraid of dogs) that excites him, given that he can experience the thrill of a dog without having to actually be near one, or perhaps Otis is just not that exciting a boy. (I had been hoping he would find funny the chapter I remember, when Otis gets caught shooting spitballs and is made to sit on a chair, bin positioned a meter or so away, and do nothing else but shoot them for an hour or so.) Whatever the case, I'll give it another go at a better time, although I am inclined to leave it off if he doesn't seem interested--or even ask him outright what he thinks of the book and take my cue from that.