Lulu's Revenge

About the Book

With fierce energy, a rich and powerful father, and an I.Q. in the stratosphere, tiny Lulu Ragsdale is no one to trifle with, and when people keep rubbing her nose in a ninth-grade humiliation, she finally retaliates with cunning and stealth, shattering the chief offender, a hapless teacher. Then she sights on complicit classmates; on the school’s bumbling principal, Florian deLessups; and--rather gratuitously--on Ellen Seifer, a sweet, ravishing, and earnest English teacher who has an appalling secret. Lulu’s pranks could scarcely come at a worse time, for the school is undergoing crucial accreditation, overseen by Sister Moira, a no-nonsense Catholic school principal from out of town. At the center of the upheaval thrashes Cole Wilkins, English department chairman and would-be educational reformer, who lusts for Ellen as Lulu lusts for him. A blending of sex farce and wicked satire, Lulu’s Revenge will bring on belly laughs--as well as some serious thought about the failure of high schools in America.

About the Author

Barclay Bates has published one novel, The Last of the White Guys (Bloomsbury Press), and many short stories. During a long career in the San Francisco public schools, he was a teacher, counselor, coach, and English department chairman.