Otherwise Known as Sheila the Great

As the summer continues, Sheila and Mouse spend most of their time at day camp in pottery class along with two boys, Russ Bindel and Sam Sweeney. Russ’s mother works in the camp office, while Sam “thinks he knows everything” (66) and likes making clay elephants. One morning, the pottery instructor asks Sheila to run an errand to the camp office, and Sheila gets a stroke of inspiration: She wants to start the first-ever camp newspaper. She remembers her class newspaper last school year, and how her teacher entrusted her with making the copies in the office all by herself. She tells the director of the camp all about her idea, and how she intends to “be in charge of everything” (68). The camp director suggests Sheila get some help because running a newspaper by herself is a big job and no one ever does it alone. Sheila insists, and the camp director reluctantly agrees.

Sheila tells Mouse about the newspaper, and although Mouse becomes excited and asks if she can help, Sheila says the newspaper is her idea, so she will be doing everything by herself. As the week goes on, Sheila tries to make up stories about the camp instructors and her fellow campers, and she makes a crossword puzzle and offers a prize for whoever can finish it first. As a finishing touch, she lists her name as “Sheila the Great” on the title page. Printing the newspaper proves to be daunting and tedious, and when Sheila finally finishes, her newspaper is blurry, crooked, and covered in smudges. Sheila realizes she doesn’t enjoy running the camp newspaper at all, and when two boys complete the crossword puzzle, Sheila gives them their “prize:” they get to run the newspaper all by themselves next week.

The winners of the crossword puzzle contest, Allen and Paul, love running the newspaper and immediately form “all kinds of committees” (76) to help it run more smoothly. Mouse becomes a reporter, but Sheila declares she doesn’t want to be involved because she doesn’t find it challenging anymore. Mouse gushes about becoming a reporter someday, and Sheila replies that she’ll become something more exciting than a reporter, like a weather forecaster.

That night, the sound of two dogs baying at the moon wakes Sheila. She looks outside and discovers Jennifer has a male friend who comes and goes with no apparent owner. Sheila becomes terrified of the thought of a stray dog running free around the neighborhood, and one day when Sheila and Mouse are playing outside, the dog suddenly appears. Sheila takes off screaming. She trips over Jennifer’s chain and expects both dogs to eat her, but Jennifer simply licks her. Sheila insists it’s dangerous to let dogs roam around the neighborhood; her mother tells her “if [she] had just kept calm nothing would have happened at all” (81).

Later, Mouse tries to get Sheila to admit she is afraid of dogs, but Sheila refuses and sticks to her story about being allergic. The Tubmans discover Jennifer is pregnant, and the Egrans promise them the pick of the litter. Bobby Egran writes a separate note to Sheila warning her yet again not to mess with his airplane models. Libby is thrilled at the idea of having a puppy, but Sheila is dead set against it. Libby gets upset and complains that Sheila always gets her way, but Mr. and Mrs. Tubman close the discussion for now. Sheila responds to Bobby’s note and assures him she doesn’t want to touch his stupid airplane models. She signs the note “Sunny Tubman, Otherwise Known as SHEILA THE GREAT” (86).