Customer Reviews

Otherwise Known as Sheila the Great

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4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(5)
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I'm nine! I am very picky about books. I was looking in the basement for books because I didn't like the books that my mom took out from the library. Then guess what I found? I found a book called Otherwise Known as Sheila the Great! It was about a girl who is scared of stuff. (But she lies and makes it out like she is so great.) What will happens when she lies to her friends? Will they figure it out? This is a great book for bedtime stories, class reading books, and for fun reading!I hope you buy this book and enjoy it like I did!

Sheila is a person who is very worried about how she is perceived by other people. She is unsure of herself, and when she doesn't know something, she tells white lies instead of just admitting it. When her family goes to upstate New York for the summer, Sheila is confronted with her fears of dogs and swimming, and in making new friends she must deal with her worries about herself. You may already be familliar with Sheila from the "Fudge" stories, but this book paints a more in depth, endearing picture of her. As always, Judy Blume uses humor to portray situations that might not be so funny were we in them ourselves.

Otherwise Known as Sheila the Great is about a girl named Sheila.Sheila babysits a dog that she really hates!She wants a dog alot but not the dog that she babysits.Sheila wants to get away from home and go to Disneyland but her parents said she could not go.So they went to Tarrytown for a couple of weeks.When they got there they rented a house.They rented the house from a family that had three boys.Sheila got the youngest boys room.When she was unpacking Sheila opened the drawer and there was a note that said,"If you touch any of my stuff, I'll get you some day!" Sheila went to sleep and the next day Sheila met a friend named Meryl but she hated that name so everyone calls her Mouse.Seila learns lots of things in Tarrytown.Read this book and you will find out what she did in Tarrytown and what she learned. You will not put this book down it will knock your socks off.

My daughter is supposed to be reading chapter books but she can't get into them so doesn't finish them. On our last library visit, I asked for help from the librarian. She said, "She just hasn't found the right book yet." This was one of the 'books' she suggested because it was audio. "Judy Blume is great and this should help spark her interest." So we got it. Well, not only did it spark her interest, it sparked mine as well! We enjoyed listening to it together in the car and even at home. One of the things I enjoy most about it is it stays centered around Sheila's thoughts/point of view and it is very entertaining and funny. The slumber party on disc three made us laugh hysterically. I never thought I'd ever try audio books but this was a great idea and now my daughter is checking out chapter books and reading them, thanks to this!

BOTTOM LINE: If you have a reluctant reader, get this fun, entertaining audio book and see if it doesn't spark your child's interest in reading!

I still have my twenty year old book report on Sheila the Great that I wrote in the fourth grade. Obviously, this was one of my favorite childhood books. It is a book about a ten year old girl who goes to a cottage on a lake with her parents and annoying older sister for a summer vacation. Sheila is terrfied of the whole experience- meeting new people, the weird dog they have to take care of, participating in a play, and taking swimming lessons. I still get a kick out of it, because when I was Sheila's age, I was a lot like her- fearful of most everything, especially swimming. The wonderful thing is though, like Sheila, I got over most of my fears, in large part due to my parents' encouragement and determination. I love all the characters especially Sheila's new pal "Mouse" who is a yo- yo champion who helps her get over some of her fears. I think all kids, both male and female, between 8-12 would love this book. It is one of the few non- trashy/gross Judy Blume books that I would recommend to children. Teachers, do your students a favor by reading them this highly entertaining book!

This book is very interesting and very funny. It starts out when Sheila and her family are spending the summer in the Egran's house. When Sheila finds out there's a dog, she is horrified. Even thought the dog is little and harmless, she is still scared. During the summer, Sheila goes to summer camp and takes swimming lessons. She hates the water, but her mom makes her go anyway.

I thought it was funny when I read about Sheila telling her family she was going to get hives from Jennifer. Will Sheila pass her swim test? Read the book to find out!

when my mommy read me this book i just loved it and i got in to a phase of reading it two times every day!! i really love this book beacause there is this girl sheila who does not want to say that she cant swim and is afraid of the dark dogs and spiders then on her summer vacation she meets some kids who make her admitt that she is not such a supergirl as she says she is. this book is the best book ever and if you like funny books and have not read this one READ IT NOW!!!!!!!!

This book is very funny and cool. I liked the whole book my mommy read it evey night.I like Sheila the best of all I like her guts.I am collecting all of Judy Blume's books.I think you should buy this book I hope you enjoy this book!!!!!!

We borrowed this book from the library after we read a couple of the Fudge books that we had on the shelf at home. I was surprised that the text now refers to a CD player and personal computers used by children, even though neither existed at the time the book was written. I found the changes jarring and wondered what else had been changed in the book that wasn't so obvious.
As an adult, I was disturbed by how casually the subject of friends being mean (or at least brutally honest) to one another is treated in the book. I don't remember it bothering me when I first read the book, though, some 30 years ago, and it didn't seem to bother my daughter when we read it, though we did stop to discuss how the friends could have been more kind.

How many of us have often thought the same thing? That we are one person to ourselves but to everyone else we are someone else? I read this book for the first time probably twenty years ago. I just recently re-read it, and it hasn't changed. Sheila brings out the truth in us all, how we hide behind our fears and pretend to be tough when we really aren't.

After hearing about Sheila from Peter Hatcher's point of view, it was great to see Sheila's view. Some say the book doesn't fit chronologically with the Fudge books, but I think that it would fit in after Superfudge and before Fudge-a-Mania.

Everyone has a little Sheila in them, whether they want to admit it or not.