Bully Bootsie Barker (Bootsie Barker Bites, 1992) returns, this time in the I Can Read series; subtle stereotypes, depicted by a different illustrator (Peggy Rathmann illustrated the original) detract from the humor that made Bootsie a villain readers loved to hate. Lisa asks her friend Bernie to attend ballet class with her because she's afraid of encountering Bootsie. Bootsie spies Bernie and announces, ``I HATE ballet,'' adding, ``I hate boys even more.'' Dance class goes down the tubes, as Bootsie muscles her way through pliÇs and relevÇs. When Bootsie dances out her version of a tornado, Bernie and Lisa let her spin her way right out the door. Bernie's constant seeking of reassurances about ballet class from his basketball coach comes across as apologetic, making ballet a means to improving his game, instead of an end in itself. Bootsie's unrelenting meanness works as well here as it did in her debut, but Karas's illustrations throw the story off: In a classroom where all the other students are relatively small and thin, Bootsie is fat; her bullying becomes synonymous with her size, and sets the stage for mean-spirited associations between looks and behavior. (Picture book. 5-7)
Pub Date: May 30, 1997
ISBN: 0-06-027100-0
Page Count: 40
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1997
In his third beginning reader about Otto the robot, Milgrim (See Otto, 2002, etc.) introduces another new friend for Otto, a little mouse named Pip. The simple plot involves a large balloon that Otto kindly shares with Pip after the mouse has a rather funny pointing attack. (Pip seems to be in that I-point-and-I-want-it phase common with one-year-olds.) The big purple balloon is large enough to carry Pip up and away over the clouds, until Pip runs into Zee the bee. (“Oops, there goes Pip.”) Otto flies a plane up to rescue Pip (“Hurry, Otto, Hurry”), but they crash (and splash) in front of some hippos with another big balloon, and the story ends as it begins, with a droll “See Pip point.” Milgrim again succeeds in the difficult challenge of creating a real, funny story with just a few simple words. His illustrations utilize lots of motion and basic geometric shapes with heavy black outlines, all against pastel backgrounds with text set in an extra-large typeface. Emergent readers will like the humor in little Pip’s pointed requests, and more engaging adventures for Otto and Pip will be welcome additions to the limited selection of funny stories for children just beginning to read. (Easy reader. 5-7)
Pub Date: March 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-689-85116-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Atheneum
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2003
Floyd and Denise update “The Tortoise and the Hare” for primary readers, captioning each soft-focus, semi-rural scene with a short, simple sentence or two. Rabbit proposes running to school, while his friend Turtle takes the bus: no contest at first, as the bus makes stop after deliberate stop, but because Rabbit pauses at a pushcart for a snack, a fresh-looking Turtle greets his panting, disheveled friend on the school steps. There is no explicit moral, but children will get the point—and go on to enjoy Margery Cuyler’s longer and wilder Road Signs: A Harey Race with a Tortoise (p. 957). (Easy reader. 5-7)
Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2000
ISBN: 0-15-202679-7
Page Count: 20
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2000
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