Bootsie Barker Bites

Rating:
Summary: My All Time Favorite Book!
Review: Bootsie Barker Bites tells the familiar tale of the uncongenial playmate, but it provides a much les conventional, and much more satisfying, ending. The story is interesting, funny, and encompasses a useful lesson about coping with mean kids.

The narrator of Bootsie Barker Bites hates playing with Bootsie, but she has to, because Bootsie's mother is her mother's best friend. Bootsie is mean - she treats the narrator very badly, breaks her toys, tries to hurt her pet lizard, and claims she is a dinosaur who will eat the narrator right up. The narrator grits her teeth and bears it until she discovers Bootsie will be staying at her house for the night; then she thinks up a plan that turns the tables on her unpleasant playmate.

Most authors would have forced an unrealistic but ultrasweet ending from this plot by having Bootsie and the narrator become friends. Barbara Bottner knows that isn't how real life usually works, so she provides a different ending. Bootsie doesn't change; the narrator's ability to cope with Bootsie changes. In addition to being thoroughly satisfying, this ending gives kids a small, easy lesson on dealing with difficult people.

The illustrations in the book are energetic and fun. The artist has done an excellent job of making Bootsie look like the archetypal evil toddler. And the small details of the pictures - the toy turtle on every page, the changing expressions of the stuffed animals, etc. - help hold kids' attention and make the book fun to reread.

Overall, this is a solidly entertaining children's book that contains, but not does not force, a message. Bootsie Barker Bites is fun for reading out loud or privately; kids enjoy it, and so do adults.

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful - my daughter memorized the book!
Review: I'm not sure who was more entertained, my kids or me. Funny, yet full of teaching points about manners, behavior and getting along with others. My kids loved it so much, I bought copies for my brother and sister-in-law who are both elementary school teachers for their personal library.

Highly recommended to anyone and everyone who has preschoolers and older...

Rating:
Summary: horrified!
Review: My three-year-old daughter was horrified by the artwork and the scary Bootsie Barker. She is seen tearing a book, then terrorizing a little girl, then holding her hand over the little girl's mouth so she can't yell for help! Pulling her by the hair, throwing her pet salamander, pinning her to the floor by stepping on her and pulling her braid while her face is smashed into the floor! I have yet to find the humor here....HOW is this funny? And how does this little girl eventually cope with this bully? She threatens her back!! NOT the example I want to teach my child. (By the way, where was the mother when all this behavior was taking place?) This book will NEVER be read again in my home! I am astonished at the previous high reviews!

Rating:
Summary: horrified!
Review: My three-year-old daughter was horrified by the artwork and the scary Bootsie Barker. She is seen tearing a book, then terrorizing a little girl, then holding her hand over the little girl's mouth so she can't yell for help! Pulling her by the hair, throwing her pet salamander, pinning her to the floor by stepping on her and pulling her braid while her face is smashed into the floor! I have yet to find the humor here....HOW is this funny? And how does this little girl eventually cope with this bully? She threatens her back!! NOT the example I want to teach my child. (By the way, where was the mother when all this behavior was taking place?) This book will NEVER be read again in my home! I am astonished at the previous high reviews!

Rating:
Summary: My All Time Favorite Book!
Review: This would have to be my favorite book ever, I remember begging my mother to read it to me when i was little,and I even memorized the whole thing. To this day i can quote my favorite lines. This is a book that i highly reccomend for anyone and their children. I am in my teens now and I still enjoy going back and reading "Bootsie Barker Bites"

Rating:
Summary: Bootsie RULES!
Review: Whenever I read this story to a group of children, I'm a librarian, they're on the edge of their seats waiting for the next horror from Bootsie. Everyone knows a Bootsie, has been a Bootsie, or lives with a Bootsie sibling. The ending is satisfying in that Bootsie doesn't reform but her victim uses her intelligence to solve her problem. (With some help from mom) A good read-aloud and a wonderful story.