Ellen Tebbits

Ellen was eight years old and wore bands on her teeth. Her best friend had just moved away and she missed her. Still, as she walked to the Spofford School of the Dance one Saturday, she was almost glad she had no best friend. Best friends do not have secrets from each other, and Ellen had a secret she did not want to share with anyone. But by the time the dancing lesson was over (surely the most devastating dancing lesson on record), Ellen had found a best friend and shared her secret. The best friend was Austine, and the secret was that Ellen was wearing woolen underwear. So was Austine!

This whole book is a cause for rejoicing, for Mrs. Cleary has done it again. Ellen Tebbits is as funny as Henry Huggins. Perhaps it is even funnier. The children who read it will decide for themselves. Louis Darling, who has provided the wonderful illustrations, has already made his decision. He calls it a draw.

The part of third grade Ellen Tebbits likes most is having Austine Allen for her best friend.

Ellen Tebbits has an embarrassing secret that she'll never share with anyone. That is, until she meets Austine—and discovers that Austine has the exact same secret! Soon the girls are best friends who do everything to­gether—attending dance class, riding horses, and dodging pesky Otis Spofford, the neighborhood troublemaker.

But then Ellen does something terrible . . . and now Austine isn't speaking to her. Ellen desperately wants her best friend back. How can she show Austine how sorry she is?

Newbery Medal-winning author Beverly Cleary brings her warm humor to this funny story of a girl readers will recognize—and love.

New York Herald Tribune

Ellen and her troubles are both funny and touching; we meet her trying to hide her long underwear at dancing school, and playing a substitute rat in `The Pied Piper.' All is told with a downright realism, and the school scenes are choice.

New readers find a friend in Beverly Cleary, who displays an uncanny understanding of kid life in Ramona Quimby, Age 8, Henry Huggins, and other titles in her classic series of books about life on Klickitat Street -- books that hold up decade after decade.