Trading Places with Tank Talbott Book

Jason Pfeiffer does not want to take swimming lessons or be anywhere near class bully Tank Talbott. Tank does not want to take dance classes. But when the two meet at the rec center, they decide to switch places.

Claudia Mills - Children's Literature

Butler begins with a wacky, kid-pleasing premise and builds it into a cleverly constructed story that contains considerable warmth and wisdom. Although Jason, sensitive and artistic, and Tank, who is athletic and bullying, are as different on the inside as can be, they bear a close enough physical resemblance on the outside that they hit upon the idea of trading places. Jason can attend Tank's scorned ballroom-dancing class at the same time as Tank attends Jason's terrifying swimming lessons. All goes amazingly well until Jason's parents are invited to watch their son pass his final swim test and Tank's parents are invited to watch their son's end-of-class ball. As Jason impersonates Tank in the dancing class, he comes to understand how long it can take for a bad first impression to die: all the girls continue to shun him for Tank's initial misbehavior and his teacher blames him for pranks he didn't do. And as a friendship between the two boys develops, slowly and convincingly, Jason also comes to understand how a kid not really all that different from himself could come to be a bully, or at least to be perceived one by others. A good reminder that people can indeed change but it may take a long, long time until others recognize it. 2003, Albert Whitman,