The Bully Blockers Club

Lotty the raccoon was looking forward to a new school year, until she met Grant Grizzly. Grant was a bully and made life miserable for Lotty. She tried ignoring him. She told him to stop it. She even tried to make friends with him, but nothing worked. Finally, Lotty came up with a brilliant idea. She formed a club with some of the other students who were being bullied by Grant. When one of the club-members was being bullied, the other members stood up for them and got the attention of an adult. This solved the bullying problem. I think this is a wonderful book for teaching students about bullying. It gives some good tips about what a person should do if they are being bullied (i.e. ignore the bully, tell them to stop, tell an adult). It also shows how bullying makes other people feel. I would highly recommend this book for students in grades K-2. Not only does it teach about bullying, but it is also a good book to teach about the literary elements of conflict, resolution, and theme. The illustrations in this book are wonderful and engaging as well.

Lotty is being bullied. She is offered to beat him up, ignore him, or even let the principal know. She decides to start a club. The children stick together. When the bully is bullying someone, they all stand up to that bully together.

This excellent book deals with the problem of school bullying in a realistic way that kids will relate to. When Lotty the raccoon goes to the first day of school--all happy and hopeful--she soon encounters Grant Grizzly (that name was my best clue about what kind of animal Grant is), a bully of the first degree. He insults her, calls her names, steals her things, and more! Lotty asks her older brother and sister for help. WHile the brother suggests retaliation, this idea is quickly rejected. Sister Lilly suggests telling the teacher, but Lotty has gotten it into her head that this is "tattling." Stll, her siblings suggest remedies that often work in kids' books: 1. Ignore Grant. 2. Try being friendly to him. 3. Make a joke out of it. Thankfully, author Teresa Bateman shows that there's no magic solution to the problem of bullies--none of these methods works. When the parents get into the picture, Dad alerts Lotty's teacher to the problem, and this is a good first step. However, Lotty recognizes that Grants does the bulk of his teasing when adults are NOT around. So she devises a clever plan: She devises a self help "Bully Blockers Club," whose members look out for each other when bully Grant attacks. THey discover that there's strength in numbers, and that adults are quicker to be on the alert when kids work together to point out common problems: "Kids spoke up when they saw something wrong and reached out to anyone who looked lonely" "....The adults were watching too, at lunchtime and at recess and in the halls. After a while Grant didn't seem as big and scary. One morning he even helped Lotty when her backpack spilled." The teacher also changes attitudes towards "tattling," and takes the morning off from math (!) to problem solve ways to help kids feel safe at school. The back of the book has a very helpful one-page afterward, "About Bullying" which explains some techniques (including thinking before you react, stating your feelings, leaving, using humor, ignoring, and telling a trusted adult, working against the notion of "tattling") that will help kids abd adults build a safe school environment. I'm dinging the book a bit because the pictures, while adequate, lacked enough style and imagination.

This clever story struck a chord with my 5 year old son who unfortunately learned in preschool that not all kids, i.e bullies, play by the same rules. The author correctly observes that the usual ways for dealing with bullies (e.g. ignore them, walk away, tell them to stop, tell an adult) don't always work in real life. The suggestions in this book places the solution in children's hands and empowers them in resolving the problem. I especially liked the emphasis on friendship, working through conflicts with humor and supportive peer groups. The author's empathy, understanding and practical solution is wonderful & workable. The story also gives children the vocabulary to express their emotions when faced with a bully situation. Since leaving preschool, my son has grown in confidence and is better prepared to deal with a bully situation. He still enjoys this wonderful book and reads it frequently because of the satisfying and joyful ending.