Otis Dooda: Strange but True by Ellen Potter (review)

When Otis Dooda moves with his family from a small town to New York City, he's not quite sure what's going to happen, but he certainly doesn't expect to be cursed by the kid who lives in the droopy-leaved plant in his new building's lobby ("Before the next full moon," the boy intones, "you will break all your bones"). With only three days before the threat's due to come true, Otis befriends neighbors Perry (who keeps a farting pony disguised as a dog in his apartment), Boris (a rather unlikable name-caller) and Cat (whose Vietnamese mother named Cat's siblings Linus, Lucy, and Hobbes), who help him formulate a plan to put The Kibosh on Potted Plant Guy. One bizarre situation leads to another, and after helping his mom train the building's dogs using soy wieners and being shot out of a cannon into a vat of marshmallow fluff, Otis realizes that maybe Potted Plant Guy just wants to be left alone—and also that the curse just referred to the dog bones in his pocket. Potter departs from her typical melancholy-tinged storyline here to instead capitalize on her also-signature zaniness, mixing the just plain goofy with a bit of gross humor that's genuinely effective. Beyond Otis's surprise realization, there's little substance in this book, but Otis is a relatable guy with perhaps unconventional—but believable—conflict with his family and a winning amount of nerdiness (he's rather fond of Pokémon cards and Legos). The text appears in big, easy-to-read font, and it's riddled with thick-lined, doodle-esque black-and-white drawings, complete with some speech bubbles, that add to the book's pell-mell flavor and comedic tone. Hand this one to kids who need something in between Captain Underpants and Kinney's Diary of a Wimpy Kid (BCCB 6/07).