Otherwise Known as Sheila the Great

The book centers on Sheila Tubman, a 10-year-old girl who masks her insecurities with a much more self-assured, confident persona. In truth, she suffers from fears ranging from arachnophobia (fear of spiders and other arachnids), cynophobia (fear of dogs), and aquaphobia (fear of water).

Her family decides to spend the summertime in Tarrytown, New York, where she is enrolled at a day camp and meets Merle "Mouse" Ellis, an easygoing, courageous, and slightly tomboyish girl skilled with her unlimited knowledge of yo-yo tricks. To Sheila's dismay, the family that owns the house in which they are staying owns a dog named Jennifer that she deeply fears and avoids, and her troubles increase when they learn of Jennifer's pregnancy and the desires of Sheila's sister, Libby, to adopt one of the puppies. Aside from these factors, Sheila is enlisted in swimming lessons (to her chagrin, but finally manages to take the final exam and earned a beginner's certificate) and single-handedly starts a camp newspaper (which proves a lot of work, but hands over editorship to two bigger boys who completed a crossword puzzle of hers; having promised a prize but forgotten to name it), even painting the backdrop of the camp's production of Peter Pan (Sheila accomplishes this without incident; and even laughs to herself that Libby is cast as Captain Hook, to Libby's consternation).

Sheila believes that her fearless masquerade is effective, but her beliefs are proven false after the guests at her sleepover write otherwise in a slam book activity. Despite the brawl that ensues between them, devastated by the insults written in each other's books, their friendship, nevertheless, continues, and Sheila slowly overcomes her fears (albeit not entirely) little by little. As the summer draws to a close with a barbecue, she is unshaken at the thought of her family's adoption of a puppy, and realizes that she enjoyed her vacation after all.

Sheila is also a character in the Fudge series. Other than brief anecdotes, Peter and his dog, Turtle, are the only members of the Hatcher family to be mentioned in the book. They're done so in the first chapter, and are done so by Sheila several times in the book. She also briefly mentions Peter's brother, Fudge, though not by name.

Sheila Tubman - the main protagonist who's excited about being in Tarrytown for the summer, but has many fears, and has a hard time admitting those fears to people

Libby Tubman - Sheila's thirteen-year-old sister, who's a ballerina and boy crazy

Merle "Mouse" Ellis - Sheila's friend in Tarrytown, who is the junior champion of yo-yoing. She's a champion swimmer, and a dog lover. One chapter deals with her sneaking into her own house through the milk door so the girls can play hide and seek when bad weather precludes them from doing so outdoors.

Sondra and Jane Van Arden - The Van Arden twins, who are good friends with Sheila and Mouse. They both are very excellent swimmers and both get easily offended. They all argue at a sleepover, but later make amends. They also participate in the indoor game of hide and seek at the Ellis house, known to all four girls as "Mouse House".

Marty - Sheila's swimming teacher, who struggles to work with her because of her hydrophobia. When she admits her problem to him, he works out a plan for her to prepare for the beginner's test. He is last seen at her house, having been invited by Mr. Tubman to attend his end of summer barbecue. Sheila at first failed to recognize him, then thinking it odd to see him on dry land and fully dressed.

Betsy Ellis - Mouse's younger sister, who is only 4 years old, but an excellent diver. She drags around a candy box on a string, which is a pretend dog she calls Ootch, due to her allergy to real dogs.

Denise - A counselor at the summer camp who teaches pottery. Also chaperones a haunted hayride, where she convinces Sheila to stop hiding from her fears on that.

Maryanne - An attractive teenage girl at the summer camp who wins the part of Wendy in the camp's production of Peter Pan due to being a better singer than Libby. Despite Libby's annoyance at not getting the role, they become friends.

Allen and Paul - Two teenagers from the summer camp who are the only ones to complete Sheila's crossword puzzle of naming all the camp counselors. When they ask for their prize, she gives them the camp newspaper. However, they seem to be more appreciative and competent at running the paper than did her, also changing the paper's name from Newsdate with Sheila the Great to Allen and Paul: Tell All.

Mrs. Reese - A neighbor of the Tubmans from Manhattan. She has a small dog named Baby, who is the only one Sheila can stand prior to overcoming her fear of them.

Bobby - The boy whose room Sheila stays in while his family is vacationing in England. Sheila is dismayed at sleeping in a room like a boy's, having convinced herself the house would be girlie. The Tubmans later see a letter from him expressing his disdain at having a girl in his bedroom and announcing he acquired a bunch of model airplanes which he will take back to the States.

Peter Hatcher - Shiela's classmate and star of the preceding book, only seen when he shares an elevator ride with Sheila and his dog, Turtle, whom she fears. He is also mentioned in the middle of the night when she sees a real spider and must overcome her fear of it, remembering how back in school he tried to scare her with a fake one but she didn't fall for it (but it scared their teacher and he got three days of detention)!

Freddie - a lifeguard at the community pool and yet another young man whom boy crazy Libby finds appealing. She always flirts with him at his guardstand and runs to fetch him beverages. Upon finding out he already has a girlfriend, however, she loses her spark for him

Judy Blume dedicated the book to her parents.

The post-2002 reprints of the book have some lines edited and a bit of new content added to update the technology use in it (for instance, record players are replaced with CD players, and the summer camp's copy machine keeps malfunctioning, which is why Sheila must use a mimeograph machine, whereas the original had them already still using theirs and not having a copy machine yet).

Judy Blume's website