Strange but true : Otis Dooda #1 / by Ellen Potter ; illustrations by David Heatley.

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Title:

Strange but true : Otis Dooda #1 / by Ellen Potter ; illustrations by David Heatley.

Author:

Potter, Ellen, 1963-

Heatley, David

ISBN:

9781250011763

Edition:

First editon

Publication Information:

New York : Feiwel and Friends, 2013.

Physical Description:

223 p. : ill. ; 22 cm.

Series:

Otis Dooda #1

Abstract:

Everyday, nine-year-old Otis Dooda confronts a series of zany changes when his father's new job prompts the family's move to a New York City apartment, where Otis is cursed by a guy in a potted plant in their apartment building lobby and has to team up with a new friend and a gassy miniature horse to break the curse.

Subject Term:

Moving, Household -- Juvenile fiction.

Apartment houses -- Juvenile fiction.

Blessing and cursing -- Juvenile fiction.

Humorous stories -- Juvenile fiction.

Geographic Term:

New York (N.Y.) -- Juvenile fiction.

Added Author:

Heatley, David

Available:*

Library	Material Type	Item Barcode	Shelf Number	Status
Searching... Avon-Washington Township Public Library	Juvenile Fiction Book Hardback	120791002747165	J POT	Searching... Unknown

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Summary

HARDY-HAR-HAR!

Meet Otis Dooda. Yes, that's his name. Go on and have a good laugh. He's heard it all before. He's been called things like Otis Poopy Stink and Otis Toilet Twinkie. That's right, yuck it up and get it out of your system. We'll wait.

All right then. This is the story of Otis and the Dooda family (including their rat named Smoochie) moving to New York City, and the incredibly strange, but true, things that happened to them. It all started with Otis getting cursed by a guy in a potted plant in their apartment building lobby, and then meeting a bunch of their neighbors, including a farting pony named Peaches who was disguised as a dog. And that was just the first day.

Reviews (4)

School Library Journal Review

Gr 3-5-Potter leaves the more serious nature of The Humming Room (Feiwel & Friends, 2012) behind for this slapstick joyride. Otis Dooda is used to people joking about his name; he's heard it all: Otis Poopy-Stinks, Otis Toilet Twinkie, etc. He's over it. What he's not over is his family's move from the country to the 35th floor of an apartment in New York City. His older, rat-loving brother, Gunther, is a source of annoyance and disgust; his mother has a penchant for soy wieners; and his dad shouts, "Rice and beans!" when he's angry. Otis's misadventures begin immediately when he offends the strange kid hiding in a potted plant on the apartment's first floor. The "Potted Plant Guy" hands out a curse: Otis will break all his bones by the next full Moon. Foiling the curse drives the youngster throughout the story, with plenty of odd things happening along the way. He meets Perry, the owner of a miniature horse with a gas problem; Cat, who has siblings named Linus, Lucy, and Hobbes; and Lola and Noodle, poodles dyed pink and blue. There are plenty of poop and fart jokes, and the black-and-white illustrations add a graphic-novel feel. Give this one to fans of the "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" (Abrams) and "Captain Underpants" (Scholastic) series.-Jamie Kallio, Orland Park Public Library, IL (c) Copyright 2013. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Publisher's Weekly Review

Potter (The Humming Room) and debut illustrator Heatley team up for a Wimpy Kid-style illustrated novel that follows the unfortunately named Otis Dooda and his family as they move from a "dinky little town" into an apartment on the 35th floor of Tidwell Towers in New York City. Otis's first days in New York are like something out of Twin Peaks: he's cursed by the "Potted Plant Guy" in the lobby (" `Before the next full moon,' the kid said in a voice that sounded like he needed to blow his nose, `you will break all your bones' "), a neighboring family keeps an eye-wateringly flatulent horse as a pet, and Otis is certain he sees zombies on the subway. Meanwhile, Otis's zit-picking older brother, Gunther, makes Rodrick Heffley look downright benevolent. Heatley strikes an apt balance between cartoony and creepy in his b&w artwork, and Potter has a firm handle on both Otis's self-effacing, drily funny voice and her audience's love of Legos, bizarre plot developments, and bountiful scatological humor. Ages 7-10. Agent: Alice Tasman, Jean V. Naggar Literary Agency. (June) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Horn Book Review

This book revolves around a motley assortment of NYC apartment-building residents and Otis Dooda's attempts to free himself from a curse bestowed by lobby fixture "Potted Plant Guy." Otis must thwart his pimply brother; meddling, pushy mom; and a neighbor's smelly pony. Gross-out jokes will amuse potty-humor enthusiasts, and entertaining cartoons complement the story but add little dimension to Otis's plight. (c) Copyright 2013. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Booklist Review

Otis Dooda clearly shares juvenile-literature DNA with a certain Wimpy Kid. Skewed for a slightly younger crowd, this first book in what will surely wind up as a series introduces our hero struggling not only with an awful moniker but with a family move to a New York City apartment building packed with quirky characters, each inked in rascally black and white. Otis' new friends include Cat (middle name Girl ), whose Vietnamese immigrant mother named her kids after comic-strip characters (siblings: Lucy, Linus, and Hobbes); and Perry, whose father runs a party business. Otis' nemesis is Potted Plant Guy, a mysterious personage who demands tribute from behind the greenery in the building's lobby and who curses Otis on his first day in New York. Whether or not Otis can head off the threat of all his bones being broken by the next full moon constitutes the book's plot, which features lots of silliness and plenty of fart jokes, courtesy of Perry's miniature horse, Peaches. Humor, hot air, and crudely rendered drawings should ensure this saga's popularity.--Cruze, Karen Copyright 2010 Booklist

Excerpts

HARDY-HAR-HAR Okay, let's just get this over with. My name is Otis Dooda. Go on. Laugh. I've heard it all before. People call me all sorts of things. When I was in kindergarten, kids called me Otis Doo-Doo. But as I got older, they got more creative. I've been called: Finished laughing? No? That's very mature of you. Well, get it out of your system. I'll wait. Done? Okay, let's move on. Except for my name, I'm pretty "sort of." I'm sort of skinny and sort of short. I'm sort of good at soccer and sort of bad at math. In other words, I'm sort of average. I lived a sort of average life, too. But then, this summer, my father started a new job, which meant we all had to move to New York City. That's when my life became sort of crazy. Everything I'm about to tell you is true. Strange but true. HOW I KNOW THAT MY BROTHER IS A DOOFUS When our moving van pulled up in front of Tidwell Towers my mouth popped open. The apartment building we were going to live in was thirty-five stories tall and made of shiny white blocks. It looked exactly like it had been built out of giant white Lego bricks. I said. My older brother, Gunther, sneered at me. "You think it looks like it's built out of giant white Lego bricks, don't you?" "No." "Admit it, Lego Nerd," he said. He placed his foot on mine and started to press down. "You're wrong," I said. Gunther squashed my foot even more. he demanded. "Because you remind me of a Clydesdale horse, with those big hairy feet of yours," I said. Gunther's foot pressed down harder and he grinned. His teeth are really tiny. It's like his baby teeth never grew into his teenaged body. Much like his brains. "Remove your hoof," I told him. He pressed harder until I almost started to squeal. Luckily, at that moment our dad said, I grabbed my backpack, which was stuffed with Lego bricks, comics, and Pokémon cards. I carried my most valuable item in my hand: a Lego lie detector, which I had just finished building the week before. It's made with Legos, a motor, and a wire connected to a tinfoil finger strap. It really works, too. The reason that I know this is that I tried it out on my mother. I hooked her up and asked her if she secretly thought Gunther was a giant doofus. She said, "Of course not," but the lie detector buzzed, which means she was lying. Then she turned all red in the face and took off the finger strap and said, "Let's not call each other doofuses, shall we?" Mom examined Gunther and me before we went into the building. She mashed down my hair and she made Gunther put a cover over the cage of his pet rat, Smoochie. She's all excited about moving to the city, but she's worried that people will think we're a bunch of hillbillies. That's because we come from a dinky little town called Hog's Head. Plus, I think we may be hillbillies, because Gunther and I whiz off the back porch when the weather is nice. The apartment building's glass doors slid open as we walked up to them. That was kind of cool, like we were moving into a Price Chopper Supermarket. In the building's lobby was a doorman. He was as burly as a football player. His head was totally bald and he had an earring in one ear. He looked like a nicely dressed pirate. Frankly, he was a little scary. But when my dad told him we were the Doodas he smiled. It was a wide flash of smile. I decided that I might like him. "Welcome," he said. "My name is Julius. And these"--he held up a pair of shining keys and shook them--"are for apartment 35B." "You mean we're going to live on the thirty-fifth floor?" I cried. "Yup," Dad said. "We were keeping that part a surprise," Mom said. "Sweet!" said Gunther. I think they were glad to see Gunther excited. When Dad first told us he got a new job in New York City and we were all moving, Gunther wasn't too happy about it. He has this girlfriend back in Hog's Head. Her name is Pandora. She picks at her scalp. Gunther picks at his pimples. They're like Romeo and Juliet, only more disgusting. As for me, I was happy to be moving away from Hog's Head. A few months ago something really bad happened to me there. I'm not sure if I'm going to tell you about it or not. We'll just see how things go. Text copyright © 2013 by Ellen Potter. Illustrations copyright © 2013 by David Heatley Excerpted from Otis Dooda: Strange but True by Ellen Potter All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.