From School Library Journal
Grade 2-3?Fans of Bootsie Barker Bites (Putnam, 1992) will be disappointed with this second story about the irrepressible bully. Lisa convinces her friend Bernie to take ballet lessons with her. Of course, Bootsie, meaner than ever, decides to join the class, where the teacher admires the overweight girl's efforts. Bernie narrates, explaining all of Bootsie's nasty and disruptive routines. Revenge is achieved by locking her outside in a downpour and smiling at her. Karas's style, which highlights exaggerated body features, gives the story a dark, foreboding mood. This makes the comic element seem cruel. Children who read this without prior expectations may enjoy the underdog-beats-bully theme. Those who remember the first Bootsie won't recognize her.?Sharon R. Pearce, San Antonio Public Library, TX
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Gr. 1^-2. Bottner's original Bootsie book,
Bootsie Barker Bites (1992), was a wickedly delightful picture book. Readers looking for more of the same will find this beginning reader less successful, and it lacks the Koolaid brightness and dramatic exaggeration of Peggy Rathmann's illustrations. The title character is still an unrepentant bully, however, and this story is narrated by a boy who is victimized by Bootsie in their ballet class. His determination to quit ballet is tempered by his basketball coach's urgings to keep it up, since dancing is improving his game. Eventually Bootsie antagonizes even the ballet teacher and engineers her own catastrophic downfall. Every kid who knows a bully (and isn't that every kid?) will enjoy watching Bootsie Barker get her comeuppance in the end. Karas' expressive drawings, washed with restrained colors, add their own brand of humor to the book. For larger collections.
Carolyn Phelan
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
