Bootsie Barker Bites

by Barbara Bottner, Peggy Rathmann (Illustrator)

Overview

Seeing bully Bootsie Barker get her comuppance is guaranteed to make young readers smile.

It's the worst when Bootsie Barker comes to my house. Bootsie's the one who pulls my hair and tears my books. She hates Charlene, my pet salamander. She says that I'm a turtle and she's a turtle-eating dinosaur.

Uh-oh, I think I hear a car pulling up. That's her now! Eeek!

"The colorful cartoon and wash drawings, filled with amusing detail, perfectly express the terroristic tactics and the narrator's frustration. When Bootsie is on a rampage, even the stuffed animals cover their eyes." —School Library Journal 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780698114272
Publisher:	Penguin Young Readers Group
Publication date:	05/19/1997
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	32
Sales rank:	235,836
Product dimensions:	8.00(w) x 10.25(h) x 0.12(d)
Lexile:	530L (what's this?)
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

Barbara Bottner began writing for children in the 1970's, when she broke her leg doing off-Broadway Theater and decided to consider a different career. Having gotten a degree in painting, she began to hang out in the children's book section of libraries and bookstores. She was amazed at the originality of the art and fell in love with picture books. Slightly fickle, she also wrote I Can Reads, eventually middle grade and YA novels. She stretched out into writing for television and film and also published essays and short stories in national magazines. She returned to writing books for children and Bootsie Barker Bites, illustrated by Peggy Rathmann, a classic, was translated into eight languages and animated for television. Barbara teaches writing and consults with writers all over the country; she was honored to receive the New School Distinguished Teaching Award in 1990.

Editorial Reviews

Praise for Bootsie Barker Bites 

★"The story will be appreciated by all children .... The colorful drawings, filled with amusing detail, perfectly express the terroristic tactics and the narrator's frustrations .... A book that treats a common and often troubling situation with an entertaining but effective touch." —School Library Journal (starred review) 

★"Bootsie comes over every day and the children 'play' while their mothers visit. ... Playtime itself consists of[Bootsie] tormenting her playmate. When the shy young victim learns that Bootsie will be spending the night, she's finally stirred to stand up for herself and scare the daylights out of her oppressor. Children will find this a profoundly satisifying turn of events . . . Expressive drawings gives this book unusual vitality . . . A natural for storytime." — Booklist (starred review)

"Uproariously illustrated .... Hilarious." —Publishers Weekly 

From the Publisher

``My mother and Bootsie Barker's mother are best friends,'' begins the diminutive narrator of this uproariously illustrated story. Bootsie stops short of actually biting, but she bares her teeth in a gleeful lethal grin as the daily mom-and-daughter visit begins. Wearing her broad-brimmed black hat and wickedly pointy hot-pink boots, Bootsie ignores all injunctions to ``play nicely, girls!'' She pretends to be a hungry dinosaur, tears up her timid host's book about turtles and knocks over an aquarium housing Charlene the salamander. Alas, the girls' parents are blind to Bootsie's malevolence and plan an overnight stay; the narrator, certain that she and Charlene will be ``rushed to the hospital with dinosaur bites,'' confides her fears to her mother, whose calm response plants the germ of an idea. The next day the beleaguered heroine thinks fast and gives Bootsie a witty comeuppance. Bottner ( Let Me Tell You Everything ) smoothly adopts the understandably anxious child's point of view, while Rathmann ( Ruby the Copycat ) contributes formidable, hyper-bright watercolors that echo the story's nightmarish but hilarious exaggeration. Ages 4-8. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

K-Gr 3-- As in Bottner's Mean Maxine (Pantheon, 1980; o.p.) and Zoo Song (Scholastic, 1989), the theme of this book is about finding ways for very different people to resolve conflicts without bloodshed. A mismatched duo, Bootsie and the narrator are thrown together because of their mothers' friendship. Underneath Bootsie's bouncy blond hair, frilly dress, and ribboned straw hat lies the heart of a tyrant. The moment adults clear the room, the sweet smile turns into a sneer and the real child emerges. She becomes a vicious dinosaur intent on devouring her playmate. The narrator's mother gives neither comfort nor protection, so the little girl decides to beat the bully at her own game--with humorous, successful results. The story may be somewhat slight, but it will certainly be appreciated by all children forced to deal with Jekyll-and-Hyde playmates. The colorful cartoon and wash drawings, filled with amusing detail, perfectly express the terroristic tactics and the narrator's frustration. When Bootsie is on a rampage, even the stuffed animals cover their eyes. A book that treats a common and often troubling situation with an entertaining but effective touch. --Heide Piehler, Shorewood Public Library, WI

School Library Journal