Dear Bully: Seventy Authors Tell Their Stories

by Megan Kelley Hall, Carrie Jones

Overview

You are not alone.

Discover how Lauren Kate transformed the feeling of that one mean girl getting under her skin into her first novel, how Lauren Oliver learned to celebrate ambiguity in her classmates and in herself, and how R.L. Stine turned being the “funny guy” into the best defense against the bullies in his class.

Today’s top authors for teens come together to share their stories about bullying—as silent observers on the sidelines of high school, as victims, and as perpetrators—in a collection at turns moving and self-effacing, but always deeply personal.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780062060976
Publisher:	HarperCollins Publishers
Publication date:	09/06/2011
Pages:	384
Sales rank:	87,569
Product dimensions:	5.30(w) x 7.90(h) x 1.00(d)
Lexile:	850L (what's this?)
Age Range:	14 - 17 Years

About the Author

Megan Kelley Hall is the author of Sisters of Misery and The Lost Sister and has written for a variety of publications, including Elle, Glamour, Parenting, the Boston Globe, and the Boston Herald. She lives north of Boston.

Carrie Jones is the New York Times bestselling author of the Need series—which includes Need, Captivate, and Entice—as well as Girl, Hero; Love (and Other Uses for Duct Tape); and Tips on Having a Gay (Ex) Boyfriend. She is the coauthor, with Steven E. Wedel, of After Obsession. Carrie lives in Maine with a scrawny cat, an obese cat, two tremendously large white dogs, and occasional pixies.

Editorial Reviews

Gr 9 Up—This is a powerful addition to the growing collection of materials that deal with this pervasive issue. Young adult and children's authors have stepped up and shared their own experiences. The stories, poems, letters, and comics are as different as they are alike; feelings of powerlessness, lack of support, and the sheer invisibility that they felt are themes that run throughout the selections, and yet each one is unique and moving. Many contributors talk about how writing became an escape from their pain and provided fuel for their creativity. Loners and misfits, popular kids, artsy types, you name it, they are here in these pages. Some are still raw from their experiences, many tell how they have moved on, and most writers assure readers that life does get better, that there is always something to look forward to. All of these stories feel authentic and honest, and readers will find a story or a person to identify with, to look to for comfort or guidance. As educators, parents, physicians, politicians, and children themselves struggle to address the issue of bullying in schools, in cyberspace, on playgrounds, or wherever, the power of real people telling real happenings about real issues is a valuable tool to wield. With some profanity and frank mentions of drinking, drugs, etc., this anthology is best for high school collections, though many of the individual stories would be excellent for middle schoolers.—Jody Kopple, Shady Hill School, Cambridge, MA

School Library Journal

…provides empathetic and heartfelt stories from each corner of the schoolyard…a welcome palliative or a wise pre-emptive defense against the trials of adolescent social dynamics.
—The New York Times

Pamela Paul

Seventy authors for children and young adults talk of their relationship to bullying in lists, free verse and comics but primarily in bland prose.

In uber-short pieces, the authors tell of having been bullies, bullied or bystanders. The individual pieces are too short, at about four pages each, to be compelling in their own right, and it's doubtful that even the biggest Nancy Werlin, R.L. Stine or Carrie Ryan fan will make it all the way through this collection. For professionals looking for teaching tools, however, it offers multiple interpretations of bullying from which to draw. Cecil Castellucci's minicomic illustrates Castellucci taking control of her group's seeming powerlessness over the shifting nature of bullies and bullied. Aprilynne Pike asserts that most children—and adults—don't realize they are bullies. Only a few authors discuss having been bullies themselves, and almost none raises the potentially tragic consequences that have made bullying of such immediate concern in schools. The myriad perspectives mean that an interceding adult can choose the appropriate piece for the appropriate teen; depending on the situation, a piece of advice (such as Lara Zeises' suggestion that one should not let oneself be bothered by mean behavior) could range from dangerously impotent to exactly what an individual victim or perpetrator needs to hear.

A potentially useful resource for counselors and teachers.(Nonfiction. 12-17)

Kirkus Reviews