The Otto Undercover books are a miniseries of books written by actress

Rhea Perlman Rhea Jo Perlman (born March 31, 1948) is an American actress. She played head-waitress Carla Tortelli in the sitcom '' Cheers'' (1982–1993). Over the course of 11 seasons, Perlman was nominated for ten Emmy Awards for Outstanding Supporting ...

and illustrated by

Dan Santat Dan Santat (born 1975) is an American author and illustrator known for his children's book '' The Adventures of Beekle: The Unimaginary Friend'', which won the 2015 Caldecott Medal for distinguished illustration. He also wrote ''The Guild of Ge ...

. They are written in an informal manner and contain illustrations on most pages. The fifth book, ''The Brink of the Ex-Stink-Tion'', has been chosen by Child Magazine as one of the 50 best books of the year 2007.

Synopsis

The series is about Jake Eboy, known as "Otto Pillip" to disguise his identity. The fake name was created by his parents to protect him. Although he has all kinds of adventures in his self-invented racecar named 'Racecar', his main aim is to find his parents and defeat their enemies.

Books

The series has a total of six books, all published in the years 2006 and 2007. *''Born To Drive'' (2006) () *''Canyon Catastrophe'' (2006) () *''Water Balloon Doom'' (2006) () *''Toxic Taffy Takeover'' (2006) () *''Brink of the Ex-Stink-Tion'' (2007) () *''Brain Freeze'' (2007) ()

Characters

The following is a list of regular characters in Otto Undercover: *Otto Pillip, or Jake Eboy *Aunt FooFoo *Aunt FiFi *Hogarth and Eleanor Eboy (their letters appear regularly but do not make an appearance until ''Brain Freeze'').

Plot summaries

Otto Undercover is a series about a boy named Otto, whose parents are working undercover. His racecar is the fastest in the world. The mystery of his parents is not revealed until the final book, ''Brain Freeze.''

Born to drive

Otto enters a racecar competition in which he expected to win $1,000,000 to sponsor

research Research is " creative and systematic work undertaken to increase the stock of knowledge". It involves the collection, organization and analysis of evidence to increase understanding of a topic, characterized by a particular attentiveness ...

to stop

disease A disease is a particular abnormal condition that negatively affects the structure or function of all or part of an organism, and that is not immediately due to any external injury. Diseases are often known to be medical conditions that a ...

. Two car thieves, named Ralphie and Paulie, attempt to produce a replica of Otto's car. They would keep Otto busy repairing the car while they use Otto's car to win the race. The next day, Otto finds out that the car is fake. When he goes to the race, Otto realises what had happened. He uses his

remote control In electronics, a remote control (also known as a remote or clicker) is an electronic device used to operate another device from a distance, usually wirelessly. In consumer electronics, a remote control can be used to operate devices such a ...

to control his car and make it perform tricks with Ralphie inside. The race continues with Otto inside the car. His rival Fullsom, who overhears Otto and his aunts' communication, but cannot understand the conversation as they talk backwards. Suddenly, an accident happens in front of Otto. Otto takes advantage of the delay and changes tyres, a tactic that helps him defeat Fullsom. At the end of the book, Otto's parents write him a letter revealing his true

identity Identity may refer to: * Identity document * Identity (philosophy) * Identity (social science) * Identity (mathematics) Arts and entertainment Film and television * ''Identity'' (1987 film), an Iranian film * ''Identity'' (2003 film), ...

as well as his 'assignments'.

Prose

The series incorporates a lot of wordplay; palindromes like "racecar" and "Otto Pillip" - a double palindrome - regularly feature along with anagrams and backward words. Oxymorons and

onomatopoeia Onomatopoeia is the process of creating a word that phonetically imitates, resembles, or suggests the sound that it describes. Such a word itself is also called an onomatopoeia. Common onomatopoeias include animal noises such as ''oink'', '' ...

are introduced later in the series. Each word is highlighted and its classification is given at the side of the page. Perlman comments that it is a "great way to have something a little challenging and a little educational in the stories but still make them fun". The use of anagrams and palindromes occurs mainly when characters are speaking, and occasionally will appear in descriptive text, but not usually in the narration. They are often used to create confusion in Otto's enemies. Ordinarily the wordplay is used for comedic purposes. Perlman believes children derive a sense of achievement from completing a chapter but many are frustrated by long chapters, so purposefully writes in small chapters commenting that she 'did that on purpose to make the process of reading a less serious endeavor, especially for reluctant readers who find 12-page chapters overwhelming.'

Inspiration

According to Perlman, the books are based on stories she used to tell her son, Jake, and they incorporate many of the suggestions he made at the time. Perlman still consults her son about the technicalities of Otto's inventions. The inspiration for ''Brink of the Ex-Stink-Tion'' came from a family trip to

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and

Tanzania Tanzania (; ), officially the United Republic of Tanzania ( sw, Jamhuri ya Muungano wa Tanzania), is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It borders Uganda to the north; Kenya to the northeast; Comoro Islands ...

on a safari. There are six books planned in the series altogether.

References and footnotes

External links

*
Illustrator Dan Santat's siteHarper Collins website