Otis Dooda--Strange but True

July 8, 2013
Potter (The Humming Room) and debut illustrator Heatley team up for a Wimpy Kidâstyle 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 (" âBefore the next full moon,' the kid said in a voice that sounded like he needed to blow his nose, âyou 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 7â10. Agent: Alice Tasman, Jean V. Naggar Literary Agency.

September 1, 2013

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

Copyright 2013 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

June 1, 2013
Grades 3-6 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.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)