Frank the tank is a bully. Pure and simple. He is big and mean. He stuffs kids in lockers and runs amok throughout the school calling kids racially inflammatory names and taunting everyone he runs into. He grows in power and size every time he succeeds at this.
This is Frank. He is only stopped when the bullied group of kids get together and challenge him. Then he begins to shrink. Mona Shmitt is the author of the book The Incredible Shrinking Bully.
This is the first book from Smashwords that I have ever been sent for review. It is an interesting source of ebooks and because I am interested in ebooks increasingly, I agreed to take a look at this one. I actually enjoy having more options for kids books and ebooks available to us. The Incredible Shrinking Bully is $3.99 and is downloadable as a PDF, and you can download it for Kindle, Kobo, Nook etc.
This particular book is another interesting means of opening up a conversation on bullying with your kids. The metaphor is simple and the solutions are acceptable. What I do not like about this book is that the drawings are so crude. Especially the drawings of Frank. The words and the story are school aged level and appropriate. This children’s picture book is a good example of how to handle bullying; however, I worry a wee bit about the message that the bystander is the one who is supposed to tackle the problem. I guess realistically this is accurate in that the adults here are largely absent and ineffectual. That is upsetting, but largely true. Most often kids are left to solve their bully problems on their own. That should not be the case though and I would have liked to have seen more interaction from adults here to make it a well rounded solution to bullying. The story is a good way to start the bully chat with your child. It could be a good jump off point for discussion of how else it might have been handled.
I have five copies of The Incredible Shrinking Bully to give away.
What you get: An ecopy of the book ($3.99 value US)
To win: Follow this blog via GFC or follow me by twitter @inkscrblr
LEAVE Me A way to reach you.
I will draw five winners on March 14th.
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
This comment has been removed by the author.