The Bully Book

Funny how themes often pop up and carry through multiple books.  This is (obviously) another book about bullying, with a vastly different take from yesterday’s post of The Second Life of Abigail Walker.  The Bully Book written by Eric Kahn Gale is about a young boy, Eric,  who enters the sixth grade and without doing anything differently, becomes the target of the sixth grade bullies.  Eric vows to find out why the bullies have singled him out and goes on the hunt for the rumored Bully Book that has been passed down through the years to upcoming sixth graders.

The book is written in alternating chapters from the rumored Bully Book and Eric’s own journal entries of what happened to him during the sixth grade.  Bullying is a huge issue in public, private, elementary, middle, and high school.  And so many kids are unsure of what to do if they or someone they know is being bullied.  This book really opens up the issue of bullying and shows both sides of the issue.  Definitely something worth using as a discussion book for middle school students.

And if I remember correctly, the author is using personal experiences to tell this story… making it much more realistic and scary at how mean kids can be to each other.  For more information about the author, check out his website!

Title: The Bully Book
Author: Eric Kahn Gale
Publisher: HarperCollins
Publication Date: 2012
Page Number: 240 pgs.