Ten on Tuesday: Bullying Picture Books

 October is National Bullying Prevention Month, and a number of picture books are trying to help children deal with different bullying situations.

Sea Monster and the Bossy Fish
by Kate Messner
A new fish behaves badly because he feels vulnerable.  Despite his abrasiveness, he wants to earn respect and make friends.

Bully
by Laura Vaccaro Seeger
A big bull tells a little bull to "Go Away!"  He also calls a chicken "Chicken!" and a turtle "Slowpoke!" until a goat calls it like it is: "Bully!"

Llama Llama and the Bully Goat
by Anna Dewdney
An angry 'bully goat' gets a second chance and a friend who stands up to him and later forgives him.

White Peacock
by Sujatha Lalgudi
A white peacock, who is different from all the other peacocks, learns how to deal with being different.

How Full is Your Bucket? For Kids
by Tom Rath
A book explains to children how being kind not only helps others, it helps them too.

Better Than You
by Trudy Ludwig
Jake is always bragging to his new neighbor Tyler about being better.  But is bragging that you are so much better at everything really just bragging?

Trouble Talk
by Trudy Ludwig
Author Ludwig acquaints readers with talking to others about someone else's troubles in order to establish a connection and gain attention.

Just Kidding!
by Trudy Ludwig
A rare look at emotional bullying among boys.

My Secret Bully
by Trudy Ludwig
A story of the friends Kate and Monica. Monica is the target or relational aggression, emotionally bullying among friends who use name-calling and manipulation to humiliate and exclude.

Sorry!
by Trudy Ludwig
Does an apology count if you don't really mean it?  Jack learns that the path to forgiveness isn't always the easiest.

STICKS AND STONES?

I must admit to having somewhat of an obsession with bullying.  Much of this is due to my working in a middle school where we have been trained in bullying-prevention, and as a result I am now aware of much more than I ever wanted to know about bullying.  To know that Dr. Dan Olweus, the founder of the institute that has researched, studied  and promoted this program began his crusade against bullying after the suicides of three Scandinavian school children is merely the tip of the iceberg.  The prevalence of bullying is staggering.  Surveys at all levels of children from elementary through high school show that one in four students report having been bullied.  Children as young as eleven years of age have committed suicide as a result.  Approximately half of all bullying in school goes unreported.  Though a staggering amount of bullying is aimed at children perceived as gay, students are bullied as well for being too short, tall, thin, stout, smart, dumb, rich, poor...you get the picture.  

Then, along comes a book just released this month called Dear Bully; 70 Authors Tell Their Stories edited by Hall and Jones.  It stunned me.  Authors like R. L. Stine, Jon Scieszka, Nancy Werlin, Lisa Yee, Ellen Hopkins and Aprilynne Pike have all written their own accounts of having been bullied.  They have written as well about their experiences in some ways as transforming them into writers.  Amazing! The book also includes letters to bullies, poems, and comic strips.  And some of the material comes from the bullies themselves, not just the bullied.   Dare I say that this made me hopeful?  How naive of me to think that all writers and writing comes from a happy place. Writing as therapy?  What a concept. I think I've been writing rhymed verse for too long.  How thankful I am that these writers are getting the best revenge with this little book!  

One of the most painful things about reading the passages was the oft-repeated mantra from parents and teachers that 'you'll get over it' or not to make it 'such a big thing.'  Bullying will not be swept under the rug any longer.  Many of the passages were authors imploring kids to tell someone.  That they will get through it, that they will not forget it, that it is a big deal, and that..."maybe one day you can turn it into a great novel.  That'll show 'em."  Indeed.