43 pages • 1 hour read
Judy BlumeOtherwise Known as Sheila the Great
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 1972A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 1-3Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 1 Summary
Summer vacation is right around the corner, and as 10-year-old Sheila Tubman steps on her building’s elevator after school one day, she sees her classmate Peter Hatcher and his dog Turtle about to get on with her. Sheila is petrified of dogs, so she proclaims Turtle smells so bad that she must walk the 10 flights of stairs up to her family’s apartment. On the way, she congratulates herself for “pretend[ing] that [she] hate[s] Turtle because he smells,” and Peter will “never know the truth” (4) about her intense fear.
In the Tubmans’ apartment, Sheila’s 13-year-old sister Libby practices ballet, and Mrs. Tubman reminds Sheila she was supposed to bring home a quart of milk. Sheila is too exhausted after climbing the stairs, so Mrs. Tubman sends Libby to get the milk instead, much to Libby’s frustration. Libby teases Sheila and guesses there was a dog on the elevator. Mr. Tubman comes home, and he and Sheila play their special game of hide-and-seek: Sheila points her shoes in the direction she is hiding, and Mr. Tubman follows the clue until he finds her.
Mr. Tubman announces the family will be spending the summer out of Manhattan, in a house in Tarrytown. Mr. Tubman’s colleague Professor Egran will be in England for the summer, and he’s invited the Tubmans to stay in his home while he and his family are gone. Mr. Tubman explains the girls will get to attend a cultural arts camp that focuses on theater, music, and dancing, much to Libby’s delight. Although Sheila is disappointed because she “wanted to go to Disneyland” (10), she starts to warm up to the idea, and when her father explains she will have her own room for the summer instead of sharing a room with Libby, she becomes excited enough to start telling people. However, Sheila’s expectations for the summer come crashing down when she finds out about Jennifer.
Chapter 2 Summary
Once in Tarrytown, Sheila is horrified to discover the Egrans’ house comes with a small dog, Jennifer. Sheila is so upset that she runs back to her family’s car, and her father assures her the dog will live outside all summer long. Sheila is still fearful, but her father tells her Jennifer is “more afraid of [Sheila] than [Sheila] [is] of her” (14). Reluctantly, Sheila agrees to come into the house. Inside, she is disappointed to learn the room she will be staying in belongs to one of Professor Egran’s sons and is distinctly boyish, undecorated, and utilitarian. Sheila kicks a closet door in frustration, while Libby is delighted to be staying in a bedroom that belongs to a teenage boy. Sheila tries to make do, but she finds a note from the room’s owner, Bobby, declaring he hates girls, and if she messes with any of his things, he’ll “GET [HER] SOMEDAY” (18).
After dinner, the Tubmans drive around Tarrytown, and that night when Sheila looks out her bedroom window, she sees Jennifer down below. Jennifer barks at Sheila, and Sheila wishes her family had just gone to Disneyland for the summer.
Chapter 3 Summary
On their first night in the house, Sheila has a hard time falling asleep in a room by herself. She is afraid of the dark, so she puts a light on, but that just shows her a spider on her ceiling. Sheila’s mind begins to race. She wonders if the spider is poisonous and whether it might fall on her and bite her. She remembers the time Peter Hatcher put a fake spider in her desk at school, and she wonders if he would laugh and tell all the kids at school she “got bitten by a poisonous spider” and “[i]n twenty seconds she was dead!” (20). Sheila jumps out of bed and runs to her sleeping parents’ bedroom, where she begs her father to come get the spider. Sheila’s father kills the spider, but just as Sheila settles in again, she hears a strange howling noise coming from outside. This time, she wakes up her mother, who comes to Sheila’s room and follows the sound to the window. They discover the sound isn’t a monster, a ghost, or a vampire like Sheila feared; it’s only Jennifer, “baying at the moon” (24), and Sheila realizes she will have to listen to Jennifer howling all summer.
Chapters 1-3 Analysis
The early chapters in Otherwise Known as Sheila the Great establish Sheila’s intense fear of dogs, but also of anything out of the ordinary, and her characterization introduces the theme of Facing One’s Fears. In the first three chapters, Sheila expresses a fearful aversion to swimming, spiders, and strange noises in the night. At the same time, Judy Blume illustrates Sheila’s big imagination, as well as her tendency to get overexcited and let her daydreams get out of hand. Sheila spent her last week of school imagining her room in Tarrytown would be beautiful and lushly decorated, even to the point of telling her classmates it was. When she arrives and discovers Bobby Egran’s room covered in nothing but model airplanes and threats, her disappointment is palpable. Sheila’s dismay in Chapter 2 foreshadows that her summer in Tarrytown will be full of unexpected twists, and Sheila will have to start Facing her Fears and rolling with the punches. The conflict is both internal and external; Shelia’s fear is an inner reality, yet her surroundings are truly challenging for her. However, the protagonist’s predicament sets the stage for her character development, which will be illustrated partly through her relationship with dogs. Sheila’s most jarring discovery at the Tarrytown house is that of Jennifer, but by the end of the novel, Sheila will have made progress in facing this fear and will even entertain the thought of adopting a puppy.
The early chapters also establish Sheila’s relationships with her family. Sheila and her older sister Libby bicker like most siblings. Sheila is thoroughly confused by her older sister’s views on boys and growing up, and Libby insists Sheila’s antics are childish. The girls have completely different responses to the Tarrytown house: While Sheila is upset to learn about Jennifer and the fact that she will be living in a boy’s room, Libby is delighted by the living arrangements and the presence of a dog. The sisters are as different as can be at first glance, and sometimes they seem determined to get on each other’s nerves. However, Blume hints that Sheila enjoys Libby’s company more than she lets on. Sheila insists she wants a room “far away from Libby” (15), but on the first night in the Tarrytown house, Sheila realizes how hard it is to sleep in a room by herself, especially after a lifetime of sharing a bedroom with Libby. This begins the conversation about Sheila’s difficult relationship with Teamwork and Friendship. Her fears keep her from understanding how to get along with others well, but they don’t keep her from seeking out companionship.
Chapter 1 also highlights Sheila’s relationship with her father. Blume dedicated this novel to her own father and references the “game” they shared when she was growing up. Sheila’s dedication to keeping up the “come and find me” game with her father illustrates their close bond. Although Libby teases Sheila and calls the game “babyish,” Sheila persists in the game because she and her father both enjoy it. Libby even expresses jealousy, accusing their father of always taking Sheila’s side when they argue. In Chapter 2, when the Tubmans arrive at the Tarrytown house and Sheila learns about Jennifer, her parents are patient and kind, but it is clear they withheld the news about Jennifer because they knew how Sheila would react if she knew in advance. This shows the Tubman parents’ understanding that Sheila experiences more nervousness than the average child and their belief that she needs to be pushed outside of her comfort zone at times. What Libby understands as favoritism is an unfortunate but natural result of one child having higher support needs than the other.
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