A Year with Butch and Spike [Hardcover]

Gail Gauthier (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 18, 1998 | Age Level: 8 and up

Seating Jasper, a straight-A, by-the-book sixth grader, between Spike and Butch, the Couture cousins, causes repercussions Mrs. McNulty could never have imagined--ones which change the boys forever.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 4-7AJasper Gordon, every teacher's dream student (and the book's narrator), begins sixth grade facing two hardships: his school's toughest teacher and a seating assignment between cousins Butch and Spike Couture, Ervin Elementary's most notorious bad boys. Jasper aims to please every adult within several thousand miles and aims to survive the Couture menace with his scholastic and behavioral integrity intact. However, when he and another impeccable student are assigned (as role models) to do group work with the Coutures and two other "lesser" students for the entire year, the teacher unwittingly creates the possibility for a kind of group solidarity that allows all six kids to mature in humanity, understanding, andAwhen necessaryAeven a rather moral sort of deviousness. Constant contact with the cousins opens Jasper's eyes to broader horizons. As he begins to be (somewhat) charmed by their audacities, he also learns that Mrs. McNulty is more than just a strict taskmaster: she is an expert at psychological abuse and humiliation. Gauthier's characterizations and free-flowing humor, including a very funny skinny-dipping episode, are as on target and insightful as Betsy Byars's "Bingo Brown" series.ACoop Renner, Coldwell Elementary-Intermediate School, El Paso, TX
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews

A sixth-grade overachiever discovers that there are worse things than being forced to sit between two underachievers in this wickedly barbed tale of a teacher gone bad. Perennial teacher's pet Jasper Gordon has a ringside seat, between cousins Spike and Butch Couture, the banes of Theodore Ervin Elementary for five years, as they square off against tough, feared Mrs. McNulty. At first, the two sides are nearly equal, but after the Coutures are caught skinny-dipping on a field trip, McNulty stops playing fair, discarding the boys' contributions to the student literary magazine out of hand, then formally recommending that Spike be left back and Butch be enrolled in remedial classes when he reaches junior high. Meanwhile, she keeps the rest of the class under her thumb with threats, intimidation, and belittlement. Fair-minded Jasper appeals to the sympathetic but powerless principal, then helps Spike and Butch put together a science project, sabotaging his own to give them a better chance of winning. When she finds out, McNulty cracks, attacking Jasper before a crowd of parents and engineering her own downfall. The characters are all slightly larger than life: McNulty is just plausible enough to be scary, the Coutures are driven not so much by malice as by a free-spirited rejection of the idea of structured learning, and Jasperhis performance anxiety well establishedmakes a meaningful sacrifice. That's two- for-two for Gauthier (My Life Among the Aliens, 1996); Spike and Butch are the most hilariously annoying classroom cut-ups since Barbara Robinson's Herdmans in The Best Christmas Pageant Ever (1972) and The Best School Year Ever (1994). (Fiction. 10-13) -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 8 and up
  
• Hardcover: 216 pages
• Publisher: Putnam Juvenile (May 18, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0399232168
• ISBN-13: 978-0399232169
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,452,816 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Gail Gauthier is the author of eight children's books, including "The Hero of Ticonderoga," an ALA Notable Book, and the two volumes of the "Hannah and Brandon Stories" series, "A Girl, a Boy, and a Monster Cat," and "A Girl, a Boy, and Three Robbers," which were both selected as Junior Library Guild offerings. Her books have been nominated for readers' choice awards in six states, and published in foreign editions in Italy, Germany, France, and Japan. She has spoken in schools in Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Vermont, as well as at professional conferences. She maintains the weblog "Original Content," where she writes about children's literature and writing.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Learning from Butch and Spike, January 25, 2000

By 

Marissa Levey - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Year with Butch and Spike (Hardcover)

Butch and Spike are truly lovable characters. They also teach us (and hopefully our teachers) that intelligence is more complicated than we might have thought. Gauthier's book, one of the few books that has made me laugh out loud, is great for illustrating the way students learn in a variety of ways using multiple intelligences. While Jasper teaches Butch and Spike that some discipline is required to achieve one's goals, the moral of the story is that creativity is a remarkable gift--a gift that Gauthier possesses, too.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A great read with food for thought, too, June 3, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: A Year with Butch and Spike (Hardcover)

This book caught my eye when I glanced through it and saw the chapter about the field trip. First the docent cheerfully obliges the boys' desire for "something gross" ("That's not gross enough? How about this, then?"). Then Spike and Butch go skinny dipping, "innocently" putting into practice what the docent has just explained. Gauthier's got me laughing, and I think she'll have kids (especially boys) laughing too. But there's more here. The boys' teacher is excessive in her admiration of Jasper, and she treats other students, especially Butch and Spike, in a very degrading fashion. She ignores every sign that the "Cootches" are intelligent boys, though they have no use for school rules and expectations. When she goes far overboard in her treatment, even Jasper realizes that something has to be done. Much to his own surprise, he joins with Butch and Spike to give her the comeuppance she deserves (though they get more than they bargained for). Told with humor, the book also makes a point or two that kids will appreciate. I think this book is a winner.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Butch and Spike, September 25, 2001

A Kid's Review

This review is from: A Year with Butch and Spike (Mass Market Paperback)

I thought this book was okay. It was way better compared to My Side of the Mountain, one of my required and very boring summer reading books. The book is about the two Couture cousins, Butch and Spike, who are the two "main enemies" of Jasper Gordan, a straight A student in Theodore Elvin Elementary School. Jasper sits in between them, acting as a "role model" for them and his class. During the story, a couple of crazy things occured, like when the two cousins went skinny dipping on a field trip when Mrs. McNulty(AKA Mrs. McNutt)lost her patience with them.
I thought the book was sort of funny because you can tell that Butch is the one who gets hurt a lot and Donny is the great baseball player. I think some people should read this book.