Booster Boycott

Sweet Valley Twins #52

by Francine Pascal (creator), Jamie Suzanne

No boys allowed ...

Winston Egbert wants to join the Boosters, Sweet Valley Middle School's cheering squad. No way, the girls say! A boy as a cheerleader? So what if Winston happens to be a terrific gymnast? So what if he makes up fantastic cheers? Jessica Wakefield and the other Boosters vow they'll do anything to keep Winston off the squad.

At first Winston endures the girls' nasty pranks. Charlie Cashman's bullying, and his classmates' giggles. But something happens to make Winston give up for good!

When the state cheering competition arrives, the Boosters are surprised to see that almost every other squad has a boy as a member. Without Winston, they're sure to lose! Is there any way the Boosters can get Winston back?

Genres: Young Adult, Childrens, Fiction, Middle Grade

134 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 1991

About the author

Francine Paula Pascal was an American author best known for her Sweet Valley series of young adult novels. Sweet Valley High, the backbone of the collection, was made into a television series, which led to several spin-offs, including The Unicorn Club and Sweet Valley University. Although most of these books were published in the 1980s and 1990s, they remained so popular that several titles were re-released decades later.

Reviews

[kylajaclyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Synopsis: Remember how Jessica was almost friends with Winston not even twenty books ago in Taking Charge? Yeah, well, that's all well and forgotten in this book. Almost every person (well, every Unicorn) in this book is rotten to the core. As you can see from the cover, Winston wants to join the Boosters. There is no boycott of anything in the story, the writers were just trying to be clever and say BOY-cott, as in the Unicorns/Boosters are boycotting boys from the cheerleading team. Clever. Haha. Anyway, I haven't read the book (I think number 4) where Amy joins the Boosters, but I imagine it's very similar to this one with all the quotes, just reversed to be quotes about nerds and girls who aren't popular, etc. So, yeah, the Boosters. I will tell you right now Winston only wants to join for love. (He likes Grace). However, the message behind this book is good, so I will let that slide, though it's not much progress for equality (but this is Sweet Valley, so why do I bother)? So at first the Boosters just ignore Winston's plea to join their team. Then Liz inadvertently gives Winston the idea of starting a petition to let him join. The next day at lunch he gets eight signatures before he approaches the Unicorns. Belinda (a Unicorn), Mandy (a Unicorn), Amy (a Booster), and Grace (a Unicorn/Booster) all support Winston. Lila, Ellen, Kimberly, Jessica, and Janet do not support him. Janet, their fearsome leader, informs Winston he will have to get one hundred signatures before she will even consider it. She knows he won't. But she's a dumbass, and sexist hag, because he gets 107 signatures. So what do the Unicorns do? They go to Casey's Place and rip up the petition (minus the girls who support Winston). Winston sees them, of course, but he's smarter than they are and has already made a photocopy. Ms. Langberg, the gym teacher, approaches the Unicorns about it the next day. She tells them they MUST give Winston a chance to tryout. They, of course, set out to make sure it's not a FAIR tryout. Little do they know that Winston practiced gymnastics the previous summer, and he has a bright, clear cheering voice. In front of a packed auditorium (guess nobody had anything better to do?), Winston aces the audition with flying colors. He even gets Grace to help him in the finale. Most everyone is astounded by his achievement. The Unicorns can't deny he is on the squad. Charlie Cashman, however, is obviously no better than the Unicorns since he finds it fun to torment Winston for making the squad. He actually punches Winston in the eye! And no teachers intervene. This is one fucked up school. And I guess Winston doesn't report it, or if he does, Charlie only gets a weeks detention. He's not even suspended! They need a zero-tolerance policy, stat. I seriously couldn't believe someone was actually punched in this book! Holy shit. Anyway, Winston still doesn't give up after that, so the girls come up with a sabotage plan that is pretty freaking lame. During rehearsal, Lila puts peanut butter in Winston's tennis shoes, but he obviously spots it. When he goes back to sit down on the bleachers, he sits in a spot that Amy has coated with glue. He stands up and rips his pants, but he's good-natured about it. Then they leave a doll in his backpack, which is pretty stupid. None of this gets Winston to leave the squad, so it's finally stupid what actually does. Grace likes Winston back, and she draws some cartoons of Winston to welcome him to the squad. Without showing him, she asks Elizabeth to run them in the Sixers. Liz obliges and Winston is humiliated (after taking a black eye? really?). Liz catches up with him to ask him what the deal is, and he explains his crush on Grace. She assures him that Grace meant the cartoons to welcome him, not to shame him. Winston goes back to the squad, ready to practice, but, of course, since he quit Janet won't let him back on. When they all arrive at the competition they see that every team has at least one guy, if not more. Stupid, stupid girls. Winston is nowhere to be found. SVMS performs last, and when they come out on the stage, Lila falls flat on her face (*Snort*). Their pyramids are terrible, and everything goes wrong. For the first round, they all get the lowest score possible. They get backstage and Amy and Grace grumble about how much they need Winston. Janet snaps at them, as is her way, and then, lo and behold!, Winston appears. None of the girls want to swallow their pride and ask Winston back, so they make Grace do it. Winston comes back with pleasure (he's crazy, but I'm proud of him), and the team ends up with second place. Winston is fabulous to not back down to them, but I'd say after they all they did, they're not worth it.

Other Wakefield Subplot: Elizabeth defends Winston at every turn, and Todd is sick of it. Jessica also makes remarks about it, but that's mostly because she can't stand Lizzie not being on her side. They both tease Liz about being in love with Winston, and Liz is sick to death of them not believing she can just be friends with a boy. So she sets up a couple of rendezvous(es?) between Amy and Todd. To her surprise, she finds herself jealous, even though she knows it's all a ruse. Dimwitted Jessica really believes there's something going on between Amy and Todd. In the final stage of her plan, Liz comes over to Amy's house and admits to Todd the truth. She also says she was sort of jealous, so she can see his point a little. Then Jess comes home to find Todd and Liz on the couch, and she accuses Todd of cheating, but then Liz tells Jess the truth. Jessica doesn't care; as long as Liz is being sneaky, she's happy.

Alternate Title: "Sexist Pigs"


Tagline: "Winston Egbert wants to join the Boosters!"

On a Scale of 1-10, How Annoying is Elizabeth?
 0. She stands up for Winston and teaches Jessica and Todd a lesson.

On a Scale of 1-10, How Sociopathic is Jessica? 10. It's off the charts. See quotes below. Any time a plot involves Jessica letting (or not letting) someone on the cheerleading squad, you can bet her sociopathy will come out in spades.

The Big Deal: Cheer competition

Lingering Questions: Where the hell were the teachers and principals in all of this (minus the PE teacher)?!

Cover: Good or Bad? Good! Winston's adorable, and Jessica looks just like two friends I have that are also blonde sisters (but not twins). However, they aren't crazy and stupid like Jessica. But they are gorgeous!

Quotes from the Book: "'Give me a break!' Jessica moaned. 'Everybody knows there's no such thing as discrimination against boys!'" (Jessica Wakefield = not a feminist).

"'Belinda! Don't you see why we can't let a guy on?' Janet asked. 'We have to have SOME standards!'" (Standard one: being an asshole).

"'Benedict Armhole,' Ellen added.
'That's Arnold, Ellen,' Janet snapped." (Snicker snicker snicker)

"'Go Sweet Valley-- please don't dally' is the dumbest cheer I've ever heard,'" Amy said. (Ditto).

"'Practice is over?' Amy cried. 'But we haven't accomplished anything!'
'Sure we have,' Jessica said, smiling slyly. 'We've decided how to get rid of Winston.'" (She sounds like Walter White).

"'He's a guy! He doesn't have to worry about equality. He's already equal!'" (I'm sure you can guess that Jessica said this. Just to quell any doubt of her ever being a feminist. Or a rational, clear-headed person).

"'So, if you refuse to sign that petition, from now on Lila and I will promise to say hi to you whenever we see you.'
'Only in the halls,' Lila added quickly.
'Or we just might wave,' Jessica said as an afterthought."

"'We are not sexists,' Jessica protested. 'How dare that creep call us that!'
'Who cares about the sexist part?' Lila demanded, thrusting her chin into the air. 'We're not pigs!'" (You really have to love Lila).

"'I am not too heavy!' Jessica shot back, incensed. 'You guys are just too pathetically weak.'" (The one thing you don't call a Wakefield is fat).

"'Me?' Lila cried. 'How could YOU have forgotten what V-I-C-T-O-R-Y spells?'
Janet slumped against the wall. 'I just went blank all of a sudden.'"

"Jessica pulled herself up straight. Why should she be the one to swallow her pride?"

Moral of the Story: If you have a cat named Fuzzball you are, by definition, awesome.

Final Rating: Three stars, because Winston is a fantastic being to stand up to those hideous girls.

[Michaela · Rating 3 out of 5]

How convenient the boosters only started being nice to Winston because he was better than all of them combined.

I’ve also always envisioned Todd to look like Zane from H20.

[Tiffany Spencer]

Booster Boycott
Jessica tells Liz she can’t walk home with her. She has another emergency meeting of the Boosters. Liz acknowledges how hard they’ve been practicing and says she’s proud of Jess. The Southern California Middle School Cheering Championship is coming up in three weeks and SVMS is hosting it for the first time. It’s also the Booster’s first competition. Jessica says Winston wants to try out for the team, but she’s not having it. Lila joins in the conversation and says he’s coming to their practice. Jessica argues that everyone knows cheerleaders are GIRLS.

At practice, Grace and Amy say that they should let Winston at least try out. Winston then appears ans ask that they hear him out. He says he just wants a chance and he thinks he can help the squad. With him on the team they could add all kinds of new routines and most high school squards are coed. Janet says but then they couldn’t talk about guys. Winston says that’s discrimination. Jessica says there’s no such thing. Winston says let him show them what he can do. Ellen says he’ll ruin their reputation of being popular and Amy shots back if all it takes is that then she’s not popular. Janet says he’s already disrupting everything and they only have three weeks. So, he just leaves. Before he does, he drops his books but then tells them he won’t give up without a fight. Janet says at least that’s that. Jessica tho isn’t so sure.

He runs into Todd in the hall and Todd asks him teasingly what he was doing in there. The coach told him the gym was off limits because of Booster practice. He hits it right on the head when he jokes, he was trying out for the Boosters. To Winston’s surprise Todd doesn’t laugh but asks why. He says he likes gymnastics and the Boosters could use some help in the competition. Plus it’sa good way to meet girls. He tells the same thing to Liz, who didn’t know he was a good gymnast.

Last summer he took gymnastics and he’s been practicing ever since he watched some high school and college squads that were amazing. Liz says she’ll try to convince Jessica and she thinks it would be great to have a coed squad. She says she bets some of the other students would agree. Winston suddenly gets happy and tells her she’s the greatest and rushes off leaving Liz wondering what she said. By lunch, Winston has started a petition and gotten several signatures. He said he got the idea from Liz saying a lot of non-Unicorns would support him. So, Liz and Amy sign. Then Belinda signs it. Then Todd and Ken add their names. Then Winston gets up his courage (with the others backing him) and goes over to the Unicorns table.

Janet isn’t impressed with the 8 signatures or Liz saying what if he’s better than all of em combined. She says he’s not getting in the Boosters. He’s not Booster material. Winston asks how many signatures it would take. She says 100. He asks Jessica but she asks him what planet is he from. He asks Grace and she says sure, but Janet bullies her out of it and then pulls the Boosters (Unicorns) away to practice cheers. As they leave, Grace whispers “Sorry” to Winston.

Booster practice goes badly. No one can agree on anything. Lila and Jessica argue over which of their cheers is better. Tamera is tired of getting stuck in the back because she’s the tallest and Amy is still ticked off at them. The try to do a human pyramid six times but when it collapses the sixth time they agree it’s time to take a break. Janet calls them all a disgrace. Then she stresses that they need to get it together for the competition. A lot of people will be watching. Janet tells them they need to practice more. Jessica and Kimberly blame Winston for ruining their concentration. Amy and Grace disagree. Janet says they should just tell everyone Winston’s petition is fake and he’s trying to make a mockery of cheerleading.

Winston gets Leslie and Randy to sign his petition and they Unicorns try to discourage them but Randy says its injustice to Winston. And Leslie turns down their offer to acknowledge her in the hallway (snorts like they’re doing her a favor). She says she’d rather Winston acknowledge her. They run into Liz and Amy and Jessica asks why she doesn’t have her back and Liz says because Winston is right. Jessica and Lila try to insinuate maybe Liz has stronger feelings for Winston than she does Todd Winston gets 102 signatures. Mostly from strangers. At lunch, Mandy and Grace admit to Janet they signed the petition. Winston is proud to present the petition with 107 names. Janet says she’s impressed and says fair is fair. She’ll talk to Mrs. Langberg. Then she calls an emergency Unicorn meeting at Casey’s.

The Unicorns rip Winston’s petition to shreds before Mandy, Belinda, and Grace show up. They aren’t happy about it. When Liz, Amy, Ken, and Todd come in they hide the evidence. Jessica tells Liz its her math quiz but Todd picks it up and sees it’s the petition. Amy gets mad at Grace but she says she wasn’t there. Liz asks how dare they. Winston has just as much a right to try out as anyone else. Winston walks in and they show him what Janet is done but he’s unphased by it. Todd says he can start another petition but Janet says the same thing might happen. Winston says its ok. They haven’t beaten him yet.

While they’re hanging out at the (food court?) Todd shows signs of being jealous of Liz’s friendship with Winston. (He says he’s all she’s been talking about and abruptly stands up and leaves to get a soda). Mrs. Langberg tells the girls on Thursday they *will* give Winston an audition. She has a photocopy of his petition. She says at least they’ll have given him a chance if he’s not up to par. If he is well then, they’ll just have a new male Booster. Only Jessica’s version of it is the Boosters will be doomed.

Liz and Amy find some of the Boosters watching tapes of the nationals last year trying to find impossible things to make Winston do for the auditions. Liz, Amy, and Grace go over to warn him about the Boosters scheme and are impressed when they catch him doing a series of cart wheels. They tell Winston what they came to say but he says there are worse things than making a fool of himself. Been there! Done that! Like not trying at all. Then he points out what Amy did and how she showed them. Grace says she thinks the Boosters will just have to get use to having a coed squad and Winston is grateful that he has her support. (We can see there’s something developing between Grace and Winston).

Liz sees Todd drive by on his bike and she speaks but he doesn’t even look at her. Winston TURNS IT OUT! He breezes through the “Lean to the Left” cheer (without being taught the cheer and in perfect sync). He changes the “He’s Our Man” cheer to “Grace! Grace! Give her a hand. If she can’t do it no one can.” He does somersaults, cartwheels (with no hands), handsprings and even stands on his head for 30 seconds. Jessica knows it’s all over when he’s done! While some of the students praise Winston others ridicule him. His locker is decorated with pink and white wrapping paper and bows. Then Charlie starts a cheer for him in the lunchroom and substitute his name with “Winnie.” Todd continues to be jealous of Liz and Winston and tells her she’s friends with a lot of guys but she doesn’t hang out with them as much as she does Winston. He won’t hear that Winston needed the support.
After school, Winston is about to head to cheer practice but he’s forgotten his cheers and has to go back to his locker. Charlie and two other guys confront him about teasing them about their cheer. They pin his to a locker and Charlie punches him in the face and gives him a black eye. At practice, Jessica is put in charge of Winston’s sabotauge by Janet. They prank him with peanut butter in his shoes, a baby doll in his bag, and by gluing him to the bleacher but he handles it all with good grace. He even helps them figure out a problem they’ve been having with Jessica’s weight working against the pyramid. A fter practice, he asks Janet what time is practice (translation, nice try but you aren’t running me off that easily).

Liz decides to teach Todd a lesson. The next day at practice, Jessica wants to have a day off to watch her soaps. Janet disagrees and says they should be practicing as much as they can. Winston thinks of a compromise to only practice half the time they usually practice. Amy sees Todd and tells Jessica she’s asking him about homework, but Jessica why Todd. Amy says it’s because he like science and there’s no harm in it. She likes Todd, but Jessica sense something fishy. That night, she asks Liz if Amy’s said anything about her science project. Liz calls Amy and tells them their plan is already working.

Grace comes to Liz and says she feels bad about how the Boosters have treated Winston. She thought of a way to welcome him. She shows Liz some sketches of Winston. One in a cheering skirt with the caption “Nice Knees! Welcome to the team!” These are the sketches (taken from the book). here was one of Winston doing a cartwheel, and one showing Winston on top of a human pyramid. There was even one of Winston dressed like Superman and carrying a baton. On his chest was the label Super cheer leader!

Liz sees Amy and Todd together working in the library and even tho she knows it’s part of the plan, she can’t help but get a little jealous. Winston comes up to the Unicorns and tells them they got what they wanted. He quits! When Liz asks him he says she ought to know. She printed the cartoon. She tells him they didn’t do it to ridicule him. They did it to welcome him. Liz says she doesn’t get it. He’s put up with so much and he’s run off by a cartoon that was meant to be funny. Winston admits the only reason he joined the Boosters was to get close to Grace Oliver (who he’s had a crush on forever). He says the cartoon made him see that Grace thinks he’s a joke. Liz says it’s the opposite. Grace did it to welcome him. She says she has a feeling she thinks he’s pretty great which makes Winston light up.

Liz goes to Amy’s and finds him and Amy working on Amy’s science project. Liz demands to know what he’s doing there and he says helping Amy with her project. What does it look like. She says it looks like they’re more than just friends. He pleads with Liz to understand that he and Amy are just friends and she says she will if he understands that she and Winston are just friends. He sees he’s been set up and says ok. She can be friends with Winston as long as he doesn’t have to help Amy with her frogs anymore. Jessica sees Liz and Todd later and Liz has to tell here (before she goes off on Todd) about the joke and teaching him and *her* a lesson that they can guys and girls can be just friends.

Winston tries to go back to the Boosters but Janet says he blew it. As he walks off and Grace tells him the Boosters aren’t the same without him and she was just trying to make him feel welcomed. He tells her she did (and Amy). He wonders if he’ll ever get a chance to tell her how he feels. The competition goes badly at first. Lila trips over her shoe lace coming out and falls flat on her face. Janet forgets what V-I-C-T-O-R-Y spells (REALLY?) Jessica drops her baton twice. Ellen drops hers three times. They all agree they did better when Winston was on the squad. Then he appears. Grace finally is the one to ask him to rejoin the Boosters. In response he rushes off to find his cheering outfit.

Charlie corners him in the hallway (and his friends) but the Boosters come out and run them off. With Winston on the team they cheer even louder and their moves are flawless. They even do the pyramid perfectly with Jessica executing a perfect somersault from the top. The Boosters come in 2nd place.

My Thoughts
Sadly, the Unicorns (Boosters) never seen to learn their lesson. You’d think they’d know by now that the people they *don’t* think will be good fits end up being the best ones of all. They should have learned this with Amy (who apparently the book hadn’t forgotten). They should have learned this with Belinda-who never really seemed like Unicorn material to me-. They should have learned this with Mandy (and that was just BOOKS AGO). I thought what Winston did was amazing! Not only that I thought he and Grace were cute. For some reason tho-not sure why- Winston even surprised me because I always had this mental picture he was kind of scrawny and clumsy (thus not making him a very good candidate to be good at gymnastics). But it was no surprise after a while that he *would* turn out to be good. It’s usually is that way. The ones you don’t think has it in them typically do.

Rating: 6

[Alex · Rating 3 out of 5]

Winston X. Egbert.... ha.

[PurplyCookie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've always had a soft spot for Winston Egbert ever since I read this book back in my grade school days. His was the role of the inevitable goofball and class clown, but overall nice guy.

Too bad he wanted to try out for the cheer leading squad, The Boosters, populated by--who else--but the members of The Unicorn Club. Now, being the girly girls that they are (with the exception of few) they then turned up their noses at this proposal. Oh and they did everything possible to make sure Winston loses his enthusiasm of signing up. Who can forget that time they glued his pants to his seat so he couldn't attend practice?

But everyone receives their comeuppance as they say, and at the end of the day (ok well, competition) the girls had to beg Winston to join them in order to give them that winning boost (pun intended).


More of Purplycookie’s Reviews @: http://www.goodreads.com/purplycookie


Book Details:

Title: Booster Boycott (Sweet Valley Twins, #52)
Author: Francine Pascal
Reviewed By: Purplycookie

[James Crawford · Rating 4 out of 5]

Winston wants to join the Booster cheerleaders and the girls don't want him on the squad. Things go bad very quickly as the girls are ultra-nasty to Winston. They try to set an impossible task for him and that is getting 100 names on a petition to let him try out.

Getting worse, they rip up the petition when he gives it to them. They blame him for everything going wrong at practice even though he's not there. They are trying to get ready for a cheerleading contest but it's obvious that they are not that good.

Then they try to make it 100% sure he will fail his tryout by assigning him very difficult things to do. He ends up bullied by the girls and beaten up by the school's local thug.

Even though the issue of sexual discrimination is discussed in class it makes no difference in the behavior of most of the girls on the squad. Then they find out the hard way that getting what they wanted isn't necessarily best for the squad or the school.

It's a very good story.

[Jodie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Never did school offer so much drama... and never did I enjoy anything as much as I enjoyed the Sweet Valley.

[Melenia · Rating 2 out of 5]

Loved these books as a child

[Sheila Read · Rating 5 out of 5]

I remember the cover just not the story.

[Sally · Rating 2 out of 5]

Gotta admit I had a soft spot for Winston :) He was always good fun and this was no exception.